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DULTERATIONS 


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HOUSEHOLD    MANUALS,   Vol.  II. 


Food  Materials 


AND 


THEIR  ADULTERATIONS. 


BY 


ELLEN   H.   RICHARDS, 

Instructor  in  Sanitary  Chemistry  in  the  Massachusetts 

Institute  of  Technology. 

Author  of  "Chemistry  of  Cooking  and  Cleaning." 


BOSTON: 
ESTES     AND     LAURIAT. 


I  ^4-5~ 


Copyright,  1885, 
.«  \fc     JstAs  and  Lauriat. 


Sntfeetsits  IDrcss: 
John  Wilson  and  Son,  Cambridge. 


PREFACE. 


THERE  is  neither  novelty  in  the  information 
which  this  little  volume  seeks  to  convey,  nor 
originality  in  the  manner  of  presenting  it ;  but  when 
its  preparation  was  begun,  some  years  since,  the  facts 
here  considered  were  for  the  most  part  found  scat- 
tered through  large  and  costly  technical  works,  written 
for  the  conditions  existing  in  England  and  Germany. 
The  books  claiming  to  be  popular  expositions  were 
either  so  old  as  to  be  out  of  date,  were  sensational, 
or  otherwise  unsatisfactory. 

One  excellent  English  work  has  recently  appeared 
which  is  so  suitable  and  admirable  in  form,  as  well  as  in 
material,  that  at  the  first  glance  it  seemed  superfluous 
to  issue  the  present  one.  Yet  Church's  "  Food  "  was 
prepared  especially  for  the  visitors  to  the  Bethnal  Green 
branch  of  the  South   Kensington   Museum,  London, 


iv  PREFACE. 

while  the  place  which  this  little  volume  is  intended  to 
fill  is  that  of  giving  useful  information  in  a  form  availa- 
ble and  attractive  for  schools  and  for  home  reading, 
without  technicalities  or  unnecessary  details.  It  has 
been  compiled  from  many  sources,  and  it  would  be 
impossible  to  credit  each  book  with  the  special  facts 
derived  from  it,  since  the  same  thing  in  different  forms 
is  often  found  in  several  works.  Quotation  marks  are 
intended  to  indicate  all  passages  taken  verbatim.  The 
names  of  the  books  consulted  will  be  found  in  the  list 
at  the  end  of  the  volume.  It  is  in  the  hope  that 
these  works  may  be  more  widely  known,  and  the 
subjects  of  which  they  treat  more  earnestly  studied, 
that  this  slight  contribution  is  sent  forth. 

The  conclusions  are  a  result  of  ten  years'  experience 
in  laboratory  examination  of  food  materials. 

The  author  is  especially  indebted  to  Miss  S.  Minns 
and  to  Miss  L.  M.  Peabody  for  valuable  aid,  both  in 
the  laboratory  and  in  the  preparation  of  the  text. 

Boston,  December,  1885. 


CONTENTS. 


I.    The  Relation  of  General  Intelligence  to 

the  Quality  of  the  Food  Supply  ...        7 
II.    Water,  Tea,  Coffee,  Cocoa 24 

III.  Cereal  Foods. —  Barley,  Rice,  Oats,  Maize, 

Rye,  and  Wheat 70 

IV.  Milk,  Butter,  Cheese 88 

V.     Sugar 97 

VI.    Canned  Fruits  and  Meats,  or  Tinned  Goods  118 

VII.    Condiments 125 

VIII.    Perishable  Foods,  and  the  Means  for  Pre- 
serving Them.  —  Meat,  Fruit,  etc.  .    .    .    144 
IX.    Other  Materials  used  in  Cooking  ....    151 
X.    Principles  of  Diet 162 


List  of  Works  consulted 177 

Index 181 


FOOD     MATERIALS 


THEIR    ADULTERATIONS. 


THE  RELATION  OF  GENERAL  INTELLIGENCE  TO 
THE  QUALITY  OF  THE  FOOD  SUPPLY. 

THE  prosperity  of  a  nation  depends  upon  the 
health  and  the  morals  of  its  citizens ;  and  the 
health  and  the  morals  of  a  people  depend  mainly 
upon  the  food  they  eat,  and  the  homes  they  live  in. 

Strong  men  and  women  cannot  be  "  raised  "  on  in- 
sufficient food.  Good-tempered,  temperate,  highly 
moral  men  cannot  be  expected  from  a  race  which  eats 
badly  cooked  food,  irritating  to  the  digestive  organs 
and  unsatisfying  to  the  appetite.  Wholesome  and  pal- 
atable food  is  the  first  step  in  good  morals,  and  is 
conducive  to  ability  in  business,  skill  in  trade,  and 
healthy  tone  in  literature. 


8  FOOD  MATERIALS 

This  being  granted,  what  office  is  of  more  impor- 
tance to  the  State  than  that  of  the  provider  of  food 
for  the  families  composing  it?  Indeed,  some  of  the 
younger  States  of  the  Union  have  recognized  the  two 
fundamental  professions  upon  which  their  prosperity 
rests,  and  have  established  in  their  agricultural  colleges 
a  parallel  course  of  domestic  economy  to  complete  the 
education  of  the  girls. 

This  is  an  instance  of  wisdom,  an  example  which 
our  Eastern  States  might  well  copy ;  for  not  only  in 
the  homes  on  the  Western  plains,  but  in  all  our  towns 
and  villages,  do  the  housewives  need  to  know  some- 
thing of  the  materials  of  daily  consumption. 

The  conditions  of  life  have  changed  here  in  New 
England  so  rapidly  and  completely,  that  our  young 
housewives  find  themselves  very  much  at  a  loss.  The 
methods  of  their  mothers  and  grandmothers  will  no 
longer  answer.  They  had  no  trouble  with  their  soap, 
for  they  superintended  its  making  and  knew  its  prop- 
erties. They  knew  how  colored  fabrics  should  be 
washed,  for  they  had  the  coloring  done  under  their 
own  eyes.  We  buy  everything,  and  have  no  idea  of 
the  processes  by  which  the  articles  are  produced,  and 
have  no  means  of  knowing  beforehand  what  the  quality 


AND    THEIR  ADULTERATIONS-.  g 

may  be.  Relatively,  we  are  in  a  state  of  barbarous 
ignorance,  as  compared  with  our  grandmothers,  about 
the  common  articles  of  daily  use. 

The  last  fifty  years  have  seen  such  a  marvellous  ad- 
vance in  applied  science,  especially  in  applied  chem- 
istry, that  it  is  no  wonder  that  housewives  have  fallen 
somewhat  behind  ;  but  it  is  high  time  for  them  to 
awake  to  the  importance  of  their  profession.  Unscru- 
pulous manufacturers  call  in  the  aid  of  the  chemist's 
art  to  enable  them  to  deceive  the  credulous  "  lady  of 
the  house,"  and  the  only  remedy  is  for  "  the  lady " 
to  acquire  knowledge  which  will  enable  her  to  detect 
such  palpable  frauds  as  are  daily  practised. 

Modern  invention  and  modern  extravagance  have  so 
complicated  modern  housekeeping,  that  there  is  little 
wonder  that  the  untrained  mistress  and  the  untrained 
servant  together  often  make  an  abode  of  ill-temper,  of 
constant  warfare  and  change,  of  discomfort  and  danger 
to  all  its  inmates,  instead  of  a  restful  family  fireside 
where  all  the  troubles  and  vexations  of  the  outside 
world  should  be  shut  out,  and  where  ruffled  tempers 
should  sweeten,  and  the  best  intellect  expand.  Our 
housekeeping  has  become  so  complicated  and  labori- 
ous that   it  cannot   go   on   indefinitely  in  this  way; 


10  FOOD  MATERIALS 

there  must  soon  come  a  crash  unless  some  way  can  be 
devised  for  a  quiet  revolution. 

This  is  an  age  of  progress.  We  cannot  go  back  to 
any  example  in  the  past.  Educated  women  must 
mark  out  a  new  plan  for  themselves.  Our  girls  must 
be  taught  to  recognize  the  profession  of  housekeeping 
as  one  of  the  highest,  although  not  necessarily  the  only 
one ;  but  whatever  art  or  accomplishment  they  may 
acquire  besides,  let  them  consider  that  the  manage- 
ment of  a  household  is  not  to  be  neglected.  The 
properly  educated  housekeeper  is  not  a  drudge :  she 
has  all  the  forces  of  nature  at  her  command,  —  the  light- 
ning harnessed  to  give  her  light ;  the  stored-up  energy 
of  past  ages  at  her  command  by  the  turning  of  a  stop- 
cock ;  swift  steamships  and  railways  bring  to  her  fruits 
and  vegetables  from  all  climes;  the  vast  prairies  fur- 
nish meat,  game,  and  flour ;  mechanical  skill  gives  her 
all  kinds  of  labor-saving  devices ;  the  general  pros- 
perity and  improving  taste  of  the  country  admit  of 
tasteful  decoration  of  the  rooms.  Surely,  never  did 
housekeeping  present  so  many  charms.  Alas  !  the 
winged  Pegasus  is  too  strong  for  his  unskilled  rider,  for 
in  his  train  has  come  a  style  of  living  both  extravagant 
and  demoralizing.      All  this   delicate  machinery  and 


mvm** 


AND    THEIR  ADULTERATIONS.        LOS^b 

costly  luxury  are  committed  by  ignorant  mistresses  to 
still  more  ignorant  servants,  —  conservative  by  inherit- 
ance and  superstitious  by  nature,  restless  with  the  very 
air  of  the  new,  and  to  them  wonderful  country,  where  all 
men  are  equal,  and  naturally  bewildered  by  the  novel- 
ties of  the  new  life,  so  different  from  their  simple  one. 
What  wonder  that  the  complicated  machinery  comes 
to  grief,  and  the  tempers  of  both  mistress  and  maid  are 
spoiled  in  attempting  the  impossible  ! 

The  only  remedy  is  for  our  girls  to  learn  something 
practical  about  these  forces,  and  the  nature  of  the 
materials  which  are  scattered  about  so  freely.  The 
distinction  between  an  educated  cook  and  an  unedu- 
cated one  of  the  same  skill  is,  that  the  educated  one 
can  tell  some  one  else  just  how  and  why  she  takes  each 
step,  while  the  uneducated  one  can  do  the  thing,  but 
cannot  tell  any  one  else  how  or  why  she  does  it.  Let 
our  school-girls  bear  this  in  mind,  and  so  study  then- 
chemistry  and  physics  that  they  can  tell  why  this  and 
that  should,  or  should  not  be  done.  A  little  actual 
knowledge  wonderfully  simplifies  things,  and  adds  in- 
terest to  the  commonest  deeds. 

Our  housekeeping  is  brought  down  from  its  high 
estate  by  being  left  to  persons  born  and  reared  under 


I2  FOOD  MATERIALS 

such  totally  different  conditions  that  they  cannot  under- 
stand the  complications  of  our  way  of  living.  Too 
much  is  expected  of  them,  and  they  are  soon  spoiled 
and  rendered  unfit  for  service,  or  for  caring  for  homes 
for  themselves.  A  little  care,  patience,  and  instruction 
would  save  the  majority  of  them,  and  make  a  vast 
difference  in  the  homes  of  the  land. 

Within  the  memory  of  the  present  generation  there 
has  crept  into  the  heads  of  the  great  American  people 
a  most  pernicious  and  insidious  idea,  —  that  labor  with 
the  hands  alone  is  degrading  and  beneath  the  dignity 
of  a  free  American  citizen.  Nowhere  has  this  been 
more  noticeable  than  in  the  place  to  which  housework 
has  been  relegated. 

To  judge  by  the  opinion  of  the  average  school-girl, 
one  would  think  that  housekeeping  required  no  more 
thought  than  the  breaking  of  stones  on  the  highway. 
Such  may  listen  with  profit  to  Ruskin  when  he  says  : 
"  It  is  a  no  less  fatal  error  to  despise  labor  when  regu- 
lated by  intellect  than  to  value  it  for  its  own  sake.  In 
these  days  we  are  always  trying  to  separate  the  two. 
We  want  one  man  to  be  always  thinking,  another  to  be 
always  working ;  and  we  call  the  one  a  gentleman,  and 
the  other  an  operative,  whereas  the  workman  ought 


AND    THEIR  ADULTERATIONS.  I3 

often  to  be  thinking  and  the  thinker  to  be  working, 
and  both  should  be  gentlemen  in  the  best  sense. 
Now  it  is  only  by  labor  that  thought  can  be  made 
healthy,  and  only  by  thought  that  labor  can  be  made 
happy." 

If  this  is  assented  to,  then  is  not  the  conclusion 
clear,  that,  if  our  girls  were  capable  of  thinking  about 
the  many  problems  of  housework,  and  of  investigating 
new  and  better  ways,  they  would  find  the  work  an 
interesting  and  worthy  one? 

It  is  only  in  the  undeveloped  stages  of  a  mechanical 
invention  that  it  is  complicated  and  runs  with  friction. 
The  perfected  machine  is  noiseless  in  its  action,  and 
simple  in  its  construction.  The  machinery  of  daily  life 
should  respond  to  the  slightest  touch  of  the  house 
engineer,  the  one  who  knows  all  about  it.  The  run- 
ning of  a  household  is  a  no  less  responsible  task  than 
the  running  of  a  steamboat  or  an  engine. 

The  time  has  come  when  the  same  kind  of  care 
must  be  given  to  the  food  of  the  family  as  the  stock- 
raiser  gives  to  that  of  his  animals.  The  modern  stock 
farm  has  given  us  most  of  the  scientific  knowledge 
we  possess  on  the  question  of  foods.  All  this  be- 
cause it  pays  to  know  the  composition  of  the  food, 


i4  FOOD  MATERIALS 

etc.  Shall  the  human  animal  be  considered  of  less 
consequence  ? 

It  is  a  wonder  that  political  economists  do  not  take 
up  this  subject,  for  the  ultimate  welfare  of  the  country 
depends  upon  securing  the  maximum  of  utility  for  the 
money  spent.  The  money's  worth  must  be  obtained 
from  both  material  and  labor.  The  law  of  utility  re- 
quires an  adequate  return  for  the  value  consumed.  A 
loaf  of  bread  eaten  by  a  farm-hand  returns  more  than 
its  value  in  the  produce  of  that  man's  labor;  so  it 
should  be  with  all  labor,  whether  mechanical  or  lit- 
erary. A  loaf  of  bread  allowed  to  mould  brings  no 
return  in  wheat  or  in  useful  thought,  and  it  is  there- 
fore wasted,  —  so  much  value  thrown  away.  So,  too, 
if  a  family  consume  at  one  meal  three  times  as  much 
food  as  is  needed  to  keep  them  in  perfect  health,  the 
excess  is  wasted,  and  sometimes  worse,  in  that  it 
causes  disease.  Not  that  a  family  which  can  afford 
beef  should  live  on  corn  meal,  but  that  if  the  food 
is  not  wisely  used  for  pleasure  or  nourishment,  it  is 
wasted. 

The  time  has  come  when  we  must  have  a  science  of 
domestic  economy,  and  it  must  be  worked  out  in  the 
homes  of  our  educated  women.     The  conditions  of 


AND    THEIR  ADULTERATIONS.  15 

life  are  so  peculiar  in  this  country  that  no  plan  made 
for  another  land  will  suit  us,  and  we  must  make  our 
own.  A  knowledge  of  the  elements  of  chemistry  and 
physics  must  be  applied  to  the  daily  living. 

It  is  not  merely  to  the  heads  of  large  and  expensive 
families  that  the  simple  knowledge  is  of  use.  In  the 
address  of  the  President  of  the  American  Institute  of 
Mining  Engineers,  in  August,  1882,  we  find  the  follow- 
ing pertinent  remarks  :  "  If  technical  instruction  and 
skill  in  our  workmen  be  essential  to  the  economical 
development  of  industry,  and  the  welfare  of  those  en- 
gaged in  it,  the  technical  education  of  their  wives  is 
not  one  whit  less  important.  Those  who  are  familiar 
with  the  expenditures  and  mode  of  life  of  the  wage 
classes  at  our  chief  mining  and  metallurgical  centres 
cannot  fail  to  be  struck  by  the  amount  of  waste  and 
the  extravagance  of  their  expenditures.  I  do  not 
mean  to  have  you  infer  that  they  live  too  well,  but 
that  through  ignorance  of  the  actual  and  compara- 
tive values  of  different  edibles,  through  ignorance  of 
the  best  ways  of  preparing  palatable  food,  of  house- 
keeping in  all  its  branches,  it  is  not  uncommon  to 
find  a  mining  -family  spending  more  for  a  wretched 
living  and  uncomfortable  home  than  is  spent  in  many 


1 6  FOOD  MATERIALS 

a  pleasant  and  comparatively  luxurious  one.  We  are 
all  but  too  familiar  with  strikes  against  greater  or  less 
reductions,  or  for  increase  of  wages ;  but  the  working 
classes  have  more  to  gain  in  comfort  and  well-being 
by  the  better  technical  education  of  their  wives  and 
daughters,  by  more  intelligence  and  skill  in  their 
homes,  than  they  could  gain  should  they  obtain  the 
most  extravagant  demands  for  which  a  strike  was  ever 
instituted.  Scientific  housekeeping  is  neither  beneath 
the  attention  of  the  refined,  nor  beyond  the  reach  of 
the  uncultured.  It  is  the  duty  of  the  rich  :  it  is  the 
salvation  of  the  poor." 

A  great  deal  may  be  done  by  economy  in  the  prep- 
aration of  food,  and  in  the  substitution  of  one  kind 
for  another,  according  to  the  cost  at  different  seasons 
of  the  year.  Here  a  knowledge  of  the  composition  of 
the  various  articles  of  diet  will  enable  one  to  choose, 
and  yet  to  give  the  family  all  the  constituents  needed. 
Tables  of  the  relative  value  of  foods,  such  as  those  in 
the  "Chemistry  of  Cooking  and  Cleaning"  (pp.  50-54), 
will  guide  a  wise  housekeeper  in  her  selection. 

Few  people  realize  the  value  of  corn  meal  as  an 
article  of  diet.  It  is  given  on  good  authority,  that  a 
young  woman,  who  was  temporarily  reduced  to  the 


AND    THEIR  ADULTERATIONS. 


17 


closest  straits  in  a  pecuniary  point  of  view,  in  order  to 
save  most  of  her  small  salary  for  dependent  relatives, 
lived  on  corn  meal  cooked  in  various  ways  for  a  whole 
year,  with  only  a  dinner  every  Sunday  at  a  friend's 
house.  She  kept  well  and  hearty  on  a  peck  of  Indian 
meal  a  month  ;  so  that  her  whole  living  cost  only  about 
ten  dollars  for  the  year,  as  she  prepared  it  herself. 
This  young  woman  knew  how  to  prepare  her  food 
so  that  it  was  palatable ;  and  it  was  much  better  than 
the  tea,  slops,  and  baker's  bread,  with  which  so  many 
working-women  try  to  sustain  life. 

It  seems  a  great  waste  to  spend  twenty  hours  a  week 
in  making  pies,  cakes,  and  puddings  for  a  family  of 
five  persons,  at  a  cost  of  five  dollars  for  the  raw  mate- 
rial, when  the  raw  or  cooked  fruit  for  dessert  can  be 
obtained  for  three  dollars  a  week,  and  the  time  of 
preparation  as  well  as  the  fuel  be  saved.  Many  fami- 
lies who  now  keep  two  maids  could  live  just  as  com- 
fortably with  one,  if  the  mistress  could  plan  the  work 
in  all  these  labor-saving  ways. 

Cooking-schools  and  classes  are  doing  good  work  in 
their  line,  and  they  should  be  introduced  very  much 
more  widely ;  but  instruction  must  go  farther,  and  in- 
clude sanitary  principles  and  the  branches  of  domestic 


1 8  FOOD  MATERIALS 

economy.  We  very  much  need  this  sort  of  instruc- 
tion introduced  into  our  schools  in  such  form  that  the 
practical  application  will  go  into  the  homes. 

One  of  the  most  puzzling  problems  which  a  modern 
housewife  has  to  solve,  is  to  learn  the  quality  of  the 
various  food  materials  which  she  provides  for  the  use 
of  the  family,  and  to  know  how  to  apportion  them. 
So  much  has  been  said  on  the  subject  of  adulteration 
in  the  past  few  years,  that  the  peace  of  mind  of  a  con- 
scientious woman  is  quite  gone,  and  she  appeals  to  the 
law-makers  to  protect  her  family. 

It  has  been  the  history  of  every  harmful  adultera- 
tion, that,  as  soon  as  the  public  became  aware  of  the 
nature  of  it,  its  manufacture  was  stopped,  and  some 
new  device  substituted.  The  remedy,  then,  for  this 
sort  of  fraud,  is  the  education  of  the  general  public  to 
such  an  extent  that  they  can,  with  some  degree  of 
probability,  detect  any  flagrant  case  of  adulteration  or 
substitution.  It  is  the  aim  of  this  little  work  to  place 
in  the  hands  of  housekeepers  such  information  as  will 
enable  them  to  purchase  intelligently,  and  to  know  in 
what  direction  to  be  suspicious.  The  nature  of  the 
adulterations  will  vary  from  year  to  year  with  the 
advance  of  knowledge,   and   with  the  detection  and 


AND    THEIR  ADULTERATIONS.  19 

exposure  of  the  accustomed  frauds ;  so  a  careful 
watch'  is  needed  to  keep  the  dealers  and  manufac- 
turers in  check. 

Dr.  Hassall,  in  his  classic  work  on  food  and  its 
adulterations,  says  that  from  1850  to  1856  he  exam- 
ined three  thousand  samples  of  the  principal  articles  of 
consumption,  and  found  that  few  which  could  be  prof- 
itably adulterated  were  not  so;  from  that  time  to  1875 
he  found  less  adulteration,  partly  due  to  the  exposures 
made,  partly  to  stricter  legal  enactments,  and  partly 
because  detection  is  now  more  certain.  It  seemed  to 
him  in  1875  as  if  frauds  were  again  on  the  increase. 

Demand  is  the  great  cause  of  supply  ;  and  if  many 
of  the  reasons  for  complaint  were  examined,  it  would 
be  found  that  the  grocers,  of  whom  we  so  bitterly 
complain,  are  only  supplying  the  demand  of  their 
customers.  Few  dealers  are  in  a  position  to  instruct 
their  customers ;  there  are  occasional  philanthropists 
among  them,  but  most  of  them  must  make  money, 
and  they  can  do  this  only  by  supplying  what  the 
public  want ;  the  superstition  yet  lingering  in  the 
minds  of  people  is  nowhere  shown  more  clearly 
than  in  the  purchases  they  make  for  every-day  use. 
The   credulity   with   which   the   average   housekeeper 


2o  FOOD  MATERIALS 

swallows  the  statements  of  the  unscrupulous  adver- 
tiser is  worthy  of  the  Middle  Ages.  Science,  and 
especially  chemical  science,  has  achieved  so  many 
marvellous  triumphs  within  the  last  fifty  years,  that  it 
is  looked  upon  as  an  occult  knowledge,  having  the 
power  which  was  attributed  to  the  alchemy  of  the 
Middle  Ages ;  and  even  intelligent  persons,  perhaps 
unconsciously,  look  upon  chemical  operations  as  capa- 
ble of  transforming  substances  in  as  subtle  a  manner 
as  was  claimed  to  be  possible  by  the  old-time  searcher 
after  the  philosopher's  stone.  As  a  result,  the  average 
housekeeper  is  a  fit  subject  for  the  modern  alchemist, — 
the  man  who  can  turn  sal-soda  or  whiting  into  gold  by 
a  few  neatly  turned  phrases  calculated  to  impress 
the  housewife  with  the  profound  wisdom  of  the  manu- 
facturer. 

In  considering  the  probabilities  of  adulteration,  one 
important  fact  must  not  be  overlooked.  When  prices 
are  low  and  food  is  plentiful,  there  is  much  less  reason 
for  admixture  of  foreign  substances ;  but  when  prices 
are  high  and  any  article  scarce,  then  is  adulteration 
rife.  Take,  for  example,  cream  of  tartar  :  in  ordinary 
years,  when  money  is  plentiful  and  gold  at  par,  it  can 
be  bought  at  from  thirty-five  to  forty  cents  a  pound ; 


AND    THEIR  ADULTERATIONS.  2I 

but  when  gold  was  two  dollars  or  more,  as  during  the 
war,  and  when  the  risk  of  importation  became  consid- 
erable, cream  of  tartar  sold  for  two  dollars  or  so  a 
pound.  The  poor  people  could  not  pay  fifty  cents  for 
what  they  had  been  accustomed  to  get  for  ten ;  but 
they  did  not  know  enough  of  the  principles  of  cooking 
to  get  along  without  it,  and  so  they  asked  for  some- 
thing cheaper.  During  those  years  there  was  very 
little  of  the  genuine  article  sold  under  the  name,  and 
the  result  was  poor  bread  and  injured  health. 

A  very  good  example  of  the  law  of  supply  and  de- 
mand was  given  to  the  writer  by  a  man  of  strict  integ- 
rity, but  a  man  of  business,  who  understood  the  public 
temper.  When  quite  young  he  kept  a  small  grocery 
store  in  one  of  the  suburbs  of  Boston.  Cream  of  tar- 
tar had  just  come  into  use.  A  woman  who  had  been 
in  the  habit  of  purchasing  her  supplies  at  a  neighbor- 
ing grocery  came  to  him  one  day  for  some  articles. 
The  young  man  prided  himself  on  the  good  quality 
of  his  goods,  therefore  felt  quite  sure  she  would  be 
pleased,  and  give  him  her  custom.  What  was  his 
surprise  to  have  her  come  back  and  complain  of  the 
quality  of  his  cream  of  tartar.  It  did  not  make  as 
good  bread  as  that  which  she  had  been  buying.     He 


22  FOOD  MATERIALS 

ventured  to  suggest  that  perhaps  it  was  strong,  and 
that  she  used  too  much ;  but  she  would  not  be  satis- 
fied, and  wanted  another  kind,  so  he  made  up  a 
package  for  her  of  two  thirds  cream  of  tartar  and  one 
third  rice  flour ;  this  satisfied  her,  and  she  became  his 
customer. 

The  same  story  has  been  told  repeatedly  of  milk. 
People  complained  of  the  yellow,  and  wished  for  the 
blue  milk,  such  as  they  had  been  using.  All  this  is  a 
great  temptation ;  and  we  can  hardly  expect  our  gro- 
cers to  become  philanthropists  and  teachers  of  the 
people.  Their  business  is  to  supply  the  public  with 
the  articles  which  it  demands,  and  it  is  from  education 
of  the  public  that  we  must  look  for  redress.  There  is 
great  danger  to  the  moral  sense  of  the  community  from 
this  sort  of  cheating,  —  this  obtaining  money  under 
false  pretences  (for  it  is  nothing  else) .  And  the  pub- 
lic is  content  to  be  cheated ;  it  should  be  aroused, 
and  by  a  knowledge  of  food  materials  a  stop  may  be 
put  to  most  frauds. 

The  unanimous  testimony  of  all  chemists  who  have 
carefully  investigated  the  extent  to  which  adulteration 
of  food  is  carried  on  in  the  United  States  is,  that,  while 
there  exists  adulteration  injurious  to  health,  there  is  a 


AND    THEIR  ADULTERATIONS.  23 

much  greater  injury  to  the  morals  of  the  community, 
and  loss  to  the  pockets  of  the  people.  In  other  words, 
the  point  to  which  public  attention  should  be  mainly 
directed  is  the  question  of  paying  a  high  price  for 
an  inferior  article.  In  some  portions  of  the  country 
ground  gypsum  —  at  perhaps  a  cent  a  pound  —  is  sold 
for  cream  of  tartar  at  ten  cents  a  quarter  of  a  pound  ; 
now  this  fraud  can  be  detected  by  any  one  who  knows 
that  cream  of  tartar  is  soluble  in  hot  water,  while  gyp- 
sum is  not.  A  cupful  of  boiling  water  poured  upon 
half  a  teaspoonful  of  good  cream  of  tartar  will  dissolve 
it  almost  instantly,  giving  a  nearly  transparent  liquid. 

Some  simple  tests  will  be  found  in  the  following 
pages,  and  it  is  hoped  that  some  little  enlightenment 
may  result.  A  knowledge  of  the  elementary  princi- 
ples of  chemistry,  as  much  at  least  as  is  given  in  the 
"  Chemistry  of  Cooking  and  Cleaning,"  is  desirable ; 
and  if  a  little  qualitative  practice  can  be  added,  the 
explanations  will  be  clearer.  For  girls  in  the  high 
schools,  furnished  with  laboratories,  the  tests  will  be 
very  simple.  References  will  be  given  to  works  where 
further  information  may  be  obtained. 


II. 


WATER,     TEA,     COFFEE,     COCOA. 

TN  importance  to  health  second  only  to  pure  air  is 
the  quality  of  the  water  drunk.  It  may  be  even 
considered  as  a  food,  for  there  is  at  least  a  probability 
that  its  office  in  the  system  is  more  than  that  of  a 
regulator  of  temperature  and  a  diluent  of  the  blood. 
From  a  sanitary  point  of  view,  next  in  importance  to 
the  quality  of  the  water  used  is  that  of  the  other 
liquids  which  are  more  and  more  frequently  substituted 
for  it,  namely,  tea,  coffee,  and  cocoa.  Beer  and  wine 
are  neither  foods  nor  necessary  beverages  in  this  land 
of  good  water  and  cheap  coffee,  hence  they  are  not 
here  considered. 

WATER. 

This  section  is  composed  of  extracts  taken,  by  per- 
mission, from  "Water  Supply,  Chemical  and  Sanitary," 
by  William  Ripley  Nichols. 


FOOD  MATERIALS. 


25 


Drinking  Water  and  Disease. 

With  reference  to  their  use  for  town  and  household 
supply,  we  shall  roughly  divide  all  natural  waters  into 
four  classes,  as  follows  :  — 

i .  Rain  water ; 

2.  Surface  water,  including  streams  and  lakes ; 

3.  Ground  water,  including  shallow  wells  ; 

4.  Deep-seated  water,  including  deep  wells,  artesian 
wells,  and  springs. 

Under  each  of  these  heads  we  shall  study  the  ad- 
vantages and  disadvantages  of  the  particular  class  of 
water,  the  liability  of  pollution,  etc. ;  but  first  we  will 
consider,  in  a  general  way,  the  connection  which  exists, 
or  is  supposed  by  some  to  exist,  between  drinking  water 
and  disease. 

A  water  containing  a  considerable  amount  of  dis- 
solved substances,  —  one  which  could  properly  be  de- 
nominated a  mineral  water,  —  would  not  be  thought 
of  for  a  public  water  supply ;  and  would  seldom  be 
used  as  a  regular  beverage  except  for  the  sake  of  real 
or  fancied  medicinal  effect ;  a  small  amount,  however, 
of  mineral  matter  is  generally  considered  an  advantage. 
The  presence  of  the  substances  which  ordinarily  exist 


2  6  FOOD  MATERIALS 

in  solution  in  natural  waters  must  not  be  regarded  as 
necessary,  because  on  shipboard  experience  has  shown 
that  distilled  water,  properly  aerated,  is  perfectly  whole- 
some. It  appears  that  distilled  water,  soft  surface  water, 
and  moderately  hard  spring  or  well  water  are  all  whole- 
some, and  may  be  drunk  without  inconvenience  by  per- 
sons accustomed  to  their  use.  It  is,  however,  true 
that  a  person  who  is  in  the  habit  of  drinking  a  soft 
water  generally  experiences  some  derangement  of  the 
digestive  organs  on  beginning  to  use  hard  water,  and 
vice  versa.  It  is  contended  by  some  that  the  human 
system  needs  salts  of  lime,  etc.,  that  these  compounds 
are  furnished  in  an  assimilable  form  in  water,  and  that, 
consequently,  a  somewhat  hard  water  is  more  advan- 
tageous for  town  supply.  Statistics  have  been  brought 
together  to  support  this  view  by  comparing  the  death 
rate  of  various  towns  with  the  hardness  of  the  water 
supply;  but  the  death  rate  depends  upon  too  many 
factors  to  be  used  as  the  chief  a/gument  in  this  con- 
nection. It  is,  however,  the  result  of  general  observa- 
tion, that  a  hard  water  of  which  the  hardness  is  due 
to  salts  of  magnesia  or  to  sulphate  of  lime  is  not 
well  suited  for  drinking,  and  is  injurious  to  most 
persons. 


AND    THEIR  ADULTERATIONS.  27 

A  hard  water  is,  generally  speaking,  one  which  con-, 
tains  compounds  of  lime  or  magnesia  in  solution. 

Waters,  especially  surface  waters,  containing  much 
vegetable  matter  are  also,  in  some  cases,  unwholesome. 
The  water  of  marshes  is  sometimes  the  cause  of  diar- 
rhoea and  other  diseases  of  this  character,  and  is  sup- 
posed by  some  to  cause  malarial  fevers.  The  mere 
presence  of  vegetable  organic  matter,  however,  is  not 
sufficient  to  produce  these  effects,  because  many  waters 
which  are  quite  deeply  colored  by  vegetable  matter  are 
proved  by  experience  to  be  perfectly  wholesome. 

While  some  waters  are  thus  in  their  natural  condi- 
tion unwholesome,  and  may  be  the  cause  of  sickness, 
the  attention  of  sanitarians  and  water  experts  is  directed 
nowadays  principally  to  the  effect  of  water  which  is 
polluted  by  the  waste  materials  from  manufactories 
and  dwellings,  or  by  the  sewage  of  towns  and  cities ; 
and  it  is  generally  held,  especially  in  England  and  the 
United  States,  that  water  thus  polluted  may  be,  and 
frequently  is,  the  cause  of  certain  specific  diseases. 
Before  discussing  this  question  directly,  it  is  important 
to  have  a  general  idea  of  the  present  prevailing  view 
with  reference  to  the  so-called  zymotic  diseases,  and 
to  understand  what  is  meant  by  the  "  germ  theory." 


28  FOOD  MATERIALS 

Many  clear  liquids  containing  organic  matter  of  ani- 
mal or  vegetable  origin,  —  such,  for  instance,  as  in- 
fusions of  hay,  infusion  of  turnip,  urine,  etc.,  —  if 
exposed  to  the  air,  gradually  become  turbid  or  cloudy ; 
or  perhaps  a  film  forms  on  the  surface  of  the  liquid, 
or  a  deposit  upon  the  walls  of  the  vessel  which  con- 
tains it.  The  cause  of  the  turbidity  is  shown  by  the 
microscope  to  be  the  presence  of  countless  minute 
organized  bodies,  —  some  rod-like,  others  globular,  — 
which  prove  to  be  capable  of  self-propagation,  and 
which  are  endowed  with  motion,  at  least  under  certain 
conditions.  Similar  organisms  are  found  in  the  "  dust  " 
which  floats  in  the  air,  and  which  may  be  collected  by 
causing  a  current  of  air  to  impinge  upon  a  surface 
moistened  with  glycerine ;  they  occur  in  rain  water, 
particularly  in  that  which  falls  in  the  beginning  of  a 
shower,  in  surface  waters,  and  elsewhere.  They  are 
found  especially  where  there  is  decomposing  organic 
matter,  and  perform  an  active  part  in  promoting  or 
producing  the  chemical  changes  which  take  place.  In 
certain  diseases  of  men  and  of  the  lower  animals,  or- 
ganisms which,  in  their  general  character,  are  similar 
to  those  thus  described,  have  been  found  in  the  blood 
or  in  the  substance  of  various  organs,  and  their  con- 


AND    THEIR  ADULTERATIONS.  29 

nection  with  the  disease  seems  to  be  something  more 
than  a  coincidence ;  there  seems,  indeed,  to  be  a 
causal  connection. 

The  "  Germ  Theory  "  of  disease  is,  that  many  dis- 
eases are  due  to  the  presence  and  propagation  in  the 
system  of  these  minute  organisms,  which  are  popularly 
spoken  of  under  the  general  name  Bacteria,  under 
which  term  are  included  also  organisms  which,  as  far 
as  known,  are  harmless.  Some  of  the  diseases  which 
have,  with  more  or  less  show  of  reason,  been  supposed 
to  have  their  cause  in  such  organisms,  are  malarial 
(intermittent)  fever,  relapsing  fever,  diphtheria,  typhus 
and  typhoid,  cholera,  yellow-fever,  and  tuberculosis. 

Admitting  the  necessary  presence  of  these  minute 
organisms  in  the  bodies  of  persons  sick  with  certain 
diseases,  organisms  which,  at  least  in  certain  stages  of 
their  development,  can  exist  outside  the  human  body 
and  retain  their  vitality  for  a  long  time,  the  question 
arises  how  they  can  find  their  way  into  the  systems  of 
healthy  persons  to  produce  disease.  The  two  most 
obvious  of  the  possible  carriers  of  disease  are  the  air 
we  breathe  and  the  water  we  drink.  We  have  no  diffi- 
culty in  supposing  that  emanations  from  sick  persons, 
particulate  or  otherwise,  may  find  their  way  into  the 


30  FOOD  MATERIALS 

air ;  moreover,  the  dejections  of  the  sick  and  the  water 
in  which  their  clothes  or  their  persons  have  been 
washed  may  often  reach  wells  or  other  sources  of 
drinking  water.  Of  these  two  media  the  former,  that 
is,  the  air,  is  a  priori  the  most  probable,  partly  because 
we  take  very  much  more  air  into  our  lungs  than  we 
take  water  into  our  stomachs,  and  also  because  the 
lungs  afford  a  better  chance  for  the  organisms  to  enter 
the  blood ;  indeed,  some  maintain  that  any  organisms 
entering  the  stomach  are  rendered  harmless  by  the 
fluids  therein,  and  that  the  drinking  water  is  not  to  be 
considered  at  all  as  a  means  of  conveying  the  germs  of 
disease. 

Of  the  diseases  which  are  supposed  to  be  caused  by 
these  micro-organisms,  to  be  propagated  by  germs, 
those  which  have  been,  with  the  greatest  unanimity, 
ascribed  to  the  use  of  impure  drinking  water,  are 
typhoid  fever  and  cholera. 

Even  the  most  earnest  advocates  of  the  drinking- 
water  theory  must  admit  that  the  theory  is  by  no  means 
proved,  in  the  sense  in  which  a  mathematical  proposi- 
tion may  be  proved ;  and  it  certainly  cannot  be  as- 
serted that  the  drinking  water  is  the  only  means  by 
which  the  zymotic  diseases  may  be  propagated ;  the 


AND    THEIR  ADULTERATIONS.  ^ 

coincidences,  however,  if  coincidences  they  be,  are  most 
remarkable,  and  every  year  adds  to  their  number. 

There  are  many  instances  where  the  closing  of  the 
suspected  source  of  supply  has  at  once  put  a  stop  to 
the  further  spread  of  the  disease ;  there  are  also  in- 
stances where  people  have  assembled  in  numbers  on 
account  of  some  celebration,  and  sickness  has  followed 
in  the  case  of  a  large  proportion  of  those  who  have 
used  a  certain  water,  while  the  others  have  not  been 
affected  ;  latterly  there  have  been  cases  where  sickness 
has  broken  out  among  families  obtaining  their  milk 
from  the  same  source,  and  investigation  has  shown 
that  impure  water  was  used  in  the  dairy. 

As  this  is  a  matter  which,  in  the  present  state  of 
science,  cannot  be  absolutely  proved  or  disproved,  the 
duty  of  those  who  have  to  advise  or  to  decide  in 
matters  relating  to  water  supply  is  perfectly  clear.:  it 
is  to  err  on  the  side  of  safety,  to  admit  the  hypothesis 
that  specific  diseases  may  be  conveyed  by  the  drinking 
water,  and  to  guard  all  sources  of  domestic  and  public 
supply  from  the  possibility  of  contamination  by  the 
dejections  of  persons  sick  with  zymotic  diseases  and 
by  excremental  matter  generally. 

Although   there  are  many  substances  of  vegetable 


32  FOOD  MATERIALS 

origin  which  are  violent  poisons,  such  as  the  vegetable 
alkaloids,  for  example,  it  is  generally  held  that  refuse 
of  vegetable  origin  is  of  much  less  importance  as  a 
source  of  pollution  than  that  coming  from  animal 
sources.  This  is  probably  true  in  general,  but  it  is 
well  known  that  the  vegetable  refuse  from  certain  manu- 
facturing operations  may  be  very  offensive ;  such,  for 
instance,  is  the  refuse  from  starch  factories,  the  water 
in  which  flax  has  been  retted,  etc.  That  such  water 
would  be  unfit  to  drink,  unless  enormously  diluted,  one 
can  hardly  doubt. 

However  views  may  differ  as  to  the  possible  injury 
from  this  or  that  particular  form  of  contamination,  we 
are  safe  in  accepting  the  two  following  principles  as 
fundamental  guides  in  the  selection  of  a  water  for  a 
water  supply :  — 

\.  A  water  suitable  for  domestic  supply  must  be  free 
from  all  substances  which  are  known  to  produce  an  in- 
jurious effect  on  the  human  system,  or  which  are 
suspected  with  good  reason  or  on  good  authority  to 
produce  such  an  effect. 

2.  The  water  should  be,  as  far  as  practicable,  free 
from  all  substances  and  from  all  associations  which 
offend  the  general  aesthetic  sense  of  the  community, 


AND    THEIR  ADULTERATIONS.  33 

and  thus  affect  the  system  through  the  imagination, 
even  if  there  is  good  reason  to  suppose  that  it  is  in 
itself  perfectly  harmless. 

Again,  most  persons  naturally  object  to  water  as 
muddy  as  that  of  most  of  our  Western  streams,  in  spite 
of  the  favorable  testimony  of  those  in  the  habit  of 
using  it ;  but  by  a  short  residence  in  St.  Louis,  for  in- 
stance, most  persons  soon  become  accustomed  to  the 
turbidity.  The  turbidity  is  a  real  objection  to  the 
water ;  but  in  the  case  of  a  water  like  that  of  the  Mis- 
souri, a  town  would  not  be  justified  in  postponing  the 
introduction  of  the  water  because  it  was  not  able  at 
the  same  time  to  adopt  a  scheme  for  its  thorough  fil- 
tration. In  the  same  way,  if  the  only  objection  to  a 
river  or  pond  water  is  a  yellow  or  brownish-yellow 
color  derived  from  vegetable,  especially  peaty  matter, 
the  water  need  not  be  condemned,  although  most  per- 
sons would  prefer  a  colorless  water. 

Undoubtedly  the  best  water  for  drinking  is  a  moder- 
ately soft  spring  water,  in  which  all  possibility  of  con- 
tamination is  out  of  the  question.  Unfortunately, 
however,  it  is  comparatively  seldom  that  such  water 
is  available  in  quantities  sufficient  for  the  supply  of 
large  towns.  Many  spring  waters  are  so  hard  that, 
3 


34  FOOD  MATERIALS 

while  not  unsuited  for  drinking,  they  are  unsuited  for 
many  manufacturing  uses,  for  use  in  steam  boilers,  and 
for  washing  and  culinary  purposes. 

It  is  a  mistake  to  claim  that  the  water  which  is  abso- 
lutely best  for  drinking  must  be  chosen  at  any  expense 
as  a  town  supply  :  when  a  soft  surface  water  free  from 
appreciable  pollution  can  be  obtained,  it  entails  a  very 
serious  and  constant  expense  to  reject  it  in  favor  of  a 
hard  water,  which  may,  to  be  sure,  be  clearer  to  the 
eye  and  somewhat  more  pleasant  to  the  taste.  There 
are  surface  waters  and  there  are  surface-water  supplies 
which  are  undoubtedly  bad ;  but  a  good  surface  water, 
such  as  may  be  taken  directly  from  many  streams,  or 
such  as  may  be  obtained  from  deep  lakes  and  from 
proper  storage  basins,  is  perfectly  well  suited  for  do- 
mestic use  or  for  town  supply.  There  are  some  who 
maintain  an  opinion  contrary  to  that  which  has  been 
expressed.  The  Vienna  Commission,  in  1864,  rejected 
surface  waters  from  among  the  waters  suitable  for 
domestic  use,  on  the  ground  of  their  variable  tempera- 
ture and  their  liability  to  pollution.  The  German 
Public  Health  Association,  at  the  Dantzic  meeting  in 
1880,  by  a  small  majority  and  after  a  lively  discussion, 
adopted  a  resolution  to  the  effect  that  spring  water  or 


AND    THEIR  ADULTERATIONS.  35 

properly  protected  ground  water  was  the  only  admis- 
sible source  of  supply ;  but  two  years  later  this  dictum 
was  modified  so  as  to  include  filtered  river  water  as 
fulfilling  the  required  conditions,  and  this  conclusion 
is  sanctioned  by  practice  and  experience. 

The  Pollution  of  Domestic  Wells. 

In  isolated  dwellings  and  in  villages  and  small  towns 
not  yet  provided  with  a  public  water  supply,  drinking 
water  must,  as  a  rule,  be  obtained  either  by  collecting 
the  rain  water  and  storing  it  in  tanks  and  cisterns,  or 
else  by  sinking  wells.  On  account  of  the  clearness  and 
nearly  uniform  temperature  of  the  ground  water,  the 
latter  method  is  usually  preferred  when  practicable. 
In  the  majority  of  cases  the  location  of  the  well  is 
dictated  simply  by  convenience,  and  it  frequently 
happens  that  it  is  in  close  proximity  to  a  privy,  or  to 
cesspools,  or  to  a  barn  or  stable.  The  result  is  that 
the  well  is  very  liable  to  pollution,  and,  more  often 
than  not,  it  is  simply  a  question  of  time  when  the 
water  shall  become  unfit  for  use. 

The  pollution  of  the  well  generally  takes  place  grad- 
ually.     The  ground  gradually  becomes  charged  with 


36  FOOD  MATERIALS 

the  soakage  from  the  privies  and  manure  heaps,  and 
percolating  rain  water  carries  the  impure  matter  into 
the  ground  water  from  which  the  well  draws  its  supply. 
In  other  cases,  actual  channels  are  formed,  by  which 
the  foul  liquid  trickles  or  flows  into  the  well  itself,  or  a 
leaky  drain,  laid  near  the  well,  may  be  the  source  of 
the  trouble. 

Whatever  views  may  be  held  of  the  effect  upon  the 
human  system  of  drinking  such  water,  there  is  no  ques- 
tion whatever  as  to  the  pollution  itself;  and  although 
the  water  may  appear  clear  and  bright,  and  be  inoffen- 
sive to  the  senses,  chemical  examination  may  show 
that  it  is  highly  charged  with  the  products  of  de- 
composition. Moreover,  there  are  hundreds  of  cases 
on  record  where  sickness  has  been  coincident  with  the 
use  of  polluted  well  water,  and  although  the  evidence 
is  of  necessity  circumstantial,  it  is  too  striking  to  be 
disregarded.  In  the  present  state  of  knowledge,  it 
must  be  said  that  the  continued  use  of  well  water 
proved  to  be  polluted  is  as  unjustifiable  as  suicide 
generally  is.  Under  what  conditions  the  water  may 
become  injurious,  and  when,  no  one  can  say. 


AND    THEIR  ADULTERATIONS. 


Household  Filtration. 


37 


In  localities  where  there  is  a  public  water  supply,  it 
is  without  doubt  the  duty  of  the  water  board  or  com- 
pany to  deliver  the  water  to  consumers  in  a  condition 
fit  for  domestic  use.  If  the  source  which  is,  on  the 
whole,  the  most  available  for  the  water  supply  is  such 
that  filtration  is  absolutely  necessary,  the  water  should 
be  filtered  on  the  large  scale  by  the  authority  controlling 
the  works.  Practically,  however,  in  the  case  of  most 
existing  water  supplies  the  water  as  delivered  to  the 
consumers  may  be  appreciably  improved  by  filtration  ; 
household  filtration  is  also  often  necessary  in  country 
residences  and  in  the  smaller  towns  where  there  is  no 
public  supply,  and  where  it  is  necessary  to  use  rain 
water  which  has  been  stored  in  tanks  or  cisterns.  For 
filtration  on  the  household  scale,  numerous  devices  have 
been  made  and  patented,  and  the  greatest  variety  of 
material  has  been  proposed. 

Many  sorts  of  porous  stone,  sand,  powdered  glass, 
bricks,  iron  in  turnings  and  other  forms,  vegetable  and 
animal  charcoal,  sponge,  wool,  flannel,  cotton,  straw, 
sawdust,  excelsior,  and  wire-gauze,  —  these  are  some  of 
the   substances  which  are  used.     A  filter  suitable  for 


38  FOOD  MATERIALS 

household  use  must  be  made  of  a  material  which  can- 
not communicate  any  injurious  or  offensive  quality  to 
the  water  which  passes  through  it ;  it  must  remove  from 
the  water  all  suspended  particles,  so  as  to  render  the 
water  bright  and  clear  j  and  it  must  either  be  readily 
cleaned,  or  the  filtering  material  must  be  such  as  to  be 
readily  renewed.  In  addition  to  these  requirements,  it 
is  of  great  advantage  if  the  filter  is  able  to  remove  a 
noticeable  amount  of  the  dissolved  organic  matter 
which  most  waters  contain. 

As  to  the  filtering  material,  the  author  is  satisfied 
that  there  is  nothing,  on  the  whole,  better  than  well- 
burned  animal  charcoal  (bone-coal).  This  material, 
as  is  well  known,  possesses  great  power  in  removing 
organic  matter  from  solution,  and  is  used  in  the  arts  to 
decolorize  colored  solutions  :  on  many  organic  sub- 
stances it  acts,  not  simply  by  adhesion,  but  apparently 
by  bringing  them  into  contact  with  oxygen,  and  thus 
absolutely  destroying  them.  Its  power  does  not  last 
indefinitely,  and  a  bone-coal  filter,  like  a  filter  of  any 
other  material,  requires  cleansing  and  renewal  at  proper 
intervals.  Other  materials  to  be  mentioned  render 
good  service,  and  in  certain  sorts  of  filters,  as  for 
instance    those    made    for    attachment    to    ordinary 


AND    THEIR  ADULTERATIONS.  39 

cocks  or  faucets,  the  bone-coal  possesses  no  essential 
advantage. 


The  Softening  of  Hard  Water. 

The  hardness  of  water  is  generally  due  to  the  pres- 
ence of  compounds  of  lime  or  magnesia.  While  a 
moderately  hard  water  may  be  perfectly  well  suited  for 
drinking,  for  almost  all  the  other  purposes  of  a  water 
supply  a  soft  water  is  preferable,  other  things  being 
equal.  If  common  soap  be  added  to  hard  water  the 
water  seems  to  curdle,  but  no  permanent  froth  or  lather 
is  formed  until,  by  the  mutual  action  of  the  soap  and 
the  compounds  of  lime  and  magnesia  on  each  other, 
the  latter  are  completely  converted  into  a  lime  or  mag- 
nesia soap,  —  an  insoluble  substance  which  forms  the 
curd  alluded  to.  After  this  point  is  reached,  any  ad- 
ditional soap  becomes  available  for  washing,  but  the 
curdy  water  is  less  efficient  as  a  detergent.  Hard  water 
is  as  a  rule  much  less  desirable  for  culinary  purposes  than 
soft  water.  Finally,  hard  water  is  also  objectionable  on 
account  of  the  "  scale  "  which  forms  in  steam  boilers 
in  which  it  is  used ;  in  manufacturing  towns  this 
becomes  a  matter  of  great  importance. 


4o 


FOOD  MATERIALS 


Pertnatient  Hardness. 


The  permanent  hardness  is  usually  caused  by  the 
presence  of  the  sulphates  (or  other  soluble  salts)  of 
lime  and  magnesia,  gypsum  (sulphate  of  lime)  being 
the  most  common ;  the  action  on  soap  is  the  same 
as  that  of  the  bicarbonates,  which  cause  temporary 
hardness.  Water  containing  sulphate  of  lime  may 
be  softened  by  adding  carbonate  of  soda,  and  this 
is  the  method  commonly  employed  in  the  laundry. 
The  chemistry  of  the  process  is  this  :  when  carbonate 
of  soda  in  solution  is  mixed  with  sulphate  of  lime  in 
solution,  there  are  formed  carbonate  of  lime  (which 
settles  out  in  the  solid  form)  and  sulphate  of  soda 
(which  remains  dissolved) ;  a  similar  action  takes  place 
with  other  soluble  compounds  of  lime  and  magnesia. 

The  expense  of  this  treatment  makes  it  imprac- 
ticable to  soften  in  this  way  the  entire  water  supply 
of  a  town,  a  large  portion  of  which  is  used  for  pur- 
poses where  the  hardness  of  the  water  is  a  matter 
of  indifference.  Sulphate  of  lime  becomes  insoluble 
in  water  at  high  temperatures  and  contributes  to  the 
formation  of  scale  in  steam  boilers  ;  hence,  for  techni- 
cal purposes  it  is  desirable  to  remove  the  sulphate,  and 


AND    THEIR  ADULTERATIONS.  4I 

the  process  just  indicated,  or  some  other  method,  may 
be  employed  to  advantage. 

The  most  simple  manner  of  treating  a  water  known 
or  suspected  to  be  impure  is  to  boil  it,  although  it  is 
by  no  means  certain  that  immunity  from  harm  is  thus 
in  all  cases  assured.  There  is,  however,  evidence  to 
show  the  value  of  the  treatment.  If  after  the  boiling 
the  water  is  iced,  it  becomes,  of  course,  more  palatable. 
It  is  stated  that  the  Chinese  and  Japanese  drink  no 
water  that  has  not  been  boiled;  and  when  we  con- 
sider the  unsanitary  conditions  which  exist  in  those 
countries  and  the  character  of  the  water  used,  it  seems 
as  if  boiling  the  water  must  prevent  ills  that  would 
otherwise  befall  the  people. 

Service  Pipes. 

The  service  pipes  for  house  distribution  in  connec- 
tion with  a  public  water  supply  are  generally  of  lead, 
this  metal  being  employed  on  account  of  the  facility 
with  which  it  may  be  worked.  Lead  pipes  are  also 
sometimes  used  for  conveying  well  or  spring  water  to 
individual  residences.  Various  waters  act  very  differ- 
ently upon  lead,  —  some  corroding  it  rapidly,  others 
only  to  a  very  slight  extent  under  similar  circumstances. 


42  FOOD  MATERIALS 

The  cause  of  the  corrosion  is  to  be  sought  in  the  dissolved 
oxygen,  of  which  all  waters  contain  more  or  less,  and 
in  certain  saline  substances,  the  presence  of  which  de- 
termines a  more  violent  action.  It  is  generally  felt,  for 
instance,  that  the  presence  of  nitrates,  nitrites,  and  am- 
moniacal  salts  increases  the  action  of  water  on  lead, 
while  carbonates,  sulphates,  and  notably  phosphates, 
hinder  such  action ;  but  while  certain  general  state- 
ments may  be  truthfully  made  as  the  result  of  labora- 
tory experiment  and  from  the  analysis  of  waters  whose 
action  on  lead  has  been  learned  by  experience,  it  is  a 
rather  hazardous  thing  for  a  chemist  to  predict,  a  priori, 
what  will  be  the  effect  of  a  particular  water  on  lead 
pipe  under  the  conditions  of  ordinary  practice.  Next 
to  no  value  attaches  to  experiments  made  by  immers- 
ing strips  of  sheet  lead  in  open  or  closed  vessels 
containing  the  water  under  examination.  In  actual 
practice,  many  waters,  which  would  be  pronounced 
dangerous  on  the  strength  of  such  experiments,  prove 
entirely  harmless.  The  pipes  very  soon  become  cov- 
ered with  a  naturally  formed  protective  coating  of  diffi- 
cultly soluble  compounds  of  lead ;  and  after  a  slight 
initial  action,  corrosion  practically  ceases  if  the  pipes 
are  kept  constantly  filled. 


AND    THEIR  ADULTERATIONS. 


43 


It  may  be  said  that  while  with  most  waters  the  action 
on  the  lead  practically  ceases,  it  probably  never  ceases 
absolutely.  The  water  of  Lake  Cochituate,  as  supplied 
in  Boston,  Mass.,  through  lead  pipes,  always  contains 
traces  of  lead  in  solution.  The  amount  of  lead  taken 
up  by  the  water  in  passing  through  some  150  feet  of 
pipe  winch  had  been  in  use  for  some  years  was  found 
to  be  only  0.03  part  in  100,000,  or  less  than  0.02  grain 
in  the  U.  S.  gallon.  Water  which  is  allowed  to  remain 
in  the  pipe  for  some  time,  or  is  drawn  from  the  hot- 
water  faucets,  may  contain  as  much  as  0.1,  or  even  0.2 
part  in  100,000  (from  0.06  to  0.12  grain  in  the  gallon)  ; 
and  wherever  lead  distribution  pipes  are  in  use,  it  is 
safer  always  to  run  to  waste  enough  water  to  clear  the 
pipes,  and  never  to  use  for  drinking  or  for  cooking 
water  which  has  passed  through  the  pipes  while  hot. 

A  similar  precaution  should  be  used  in  the  case  of 
new  pipes ;  the  water  should  be  wasted  intermittently 
but  freely  for  a  number  of  days.  There  is  great  differ- 
ence in  the  susceptibility  of  different  persons  to  lead 
poisoning.  It  is  thought  that  as  little  as  one  fortieth 
of  a  grain  to  the  gallon  has  caused  sickness,  but  one 
tenth  of  a  grain  is  usually  regarded  as  an  outside  limit. 
It  is  doubtful  whether  there  are  any  well- authenticated 


44  FOOD  MATERIALS 

cases  of  lead  poisoning  from  the  use  of  the  Cochituate 
water. 

The  Croton  water  supplied  to  New  York  City  is 
similar  to  the  Boston  water  in  its  action  on  lead, 
although  at  least  one  case  of  poisoning  has  been  re- 
ported, which  was  supposed  to  be  due  to  the  daily  use 
for  some  time  of  water  which  had  stood  over  night  in 
the  pipes.  The  practical  experience  in  the  use  of  lead 
pipe  in  the  cities  mentioned,  and  in  many  others, 
shows  that  as  a  rule  there  is  no  danger  in  using 
lead  pipes  for  house  distribution  in  connection  with  a 
public  supply. 

The  most  unfavorable  situation  for  lead  pipe  is  as 
suction  pipes  in  wells.  Here  the  corrosion  is  often 
very  rapid,  and  it  is  rendered  more  violent  by  the  fact 
that  the  continual  changes  of  level  expose  a  longer  or 
shorter  portion  of  the  pipe  to  the  alternate  action  of 
air  and  water.  There  are  instances  enough  of  lead 
poisoning  from  this  cause. 

It  may  be  remarked,  in  this  connection,  that  the  lead 
pipe  now  in  use,  at  least  in  the  eastern  part  of  the 
country,  is  much  inferior  in  strength  and  durability, 
and  apparently  more  readily  corroded,  than  that  for- 
merly in  use.     The  lead  now  in  the  market  has  been 


AND    THEIR  ADULTERATIONS.  45 

desilverized  by  the  zinc  process,  and  this  seems  to  give 
it  a  particular  and  disadvantageous  character. 

Other  materials  than  lead  are  used  in  the  house 
service.  To  block-tin  or  to  tin-lined  lead  pipes,  if  the 
latter  are  properly  made  and  properly  put  together, 
there  is  no  objection  on  sanitary  grounds.  The  corro- 
sion of  the  tin  by  ordinary  waters  would  result  in  the 
formation  of  insoluble  and  harmless  substances.  As  to 
the  suitability  of  the  brass  pipes  which  have  been  pro- 
posed, there  seems  to  be  no  exact  information.  To 
the  various  sorts  of  "enamelled"  wrought-iron  pipes 
which  are  in  the  market  there  is  no  sanitary  objection. 
The  coating  or  enamel  is  generally  some  preparation 
of  coal  tar,  with  or  without  linseed  oil,  and  this  sort  of 
pipe  is  particularly  adapted  for  use  in  wells,  where  a 
portion  of  the  outer  surface  is  exposed  alternately  to 
the  action  of  air  and  water ;  unfortunately,  the  coating 
is  not  always  perfect,  and  when  the  original  surface  of 
the  pipe  is  exposed,  rusting  begins.  Zincked  or  "  gal- 
vanized "  iron,  as  it  is  called,  is  fully  as  bad  in  respect 
to  rusting.  The  pipes  are  prepared  by  dipping  the 
iron,  previously  well  cleaned  by  means  of  dilute  acid, 
into  a  bath  of  melted  zinc.  The  zinc  adheres  firmly  to 
the  surface  of  the  iron,  and  penetrates  it  to  a  certain 


46  FOOD  MATERIALS 

extent,  so  that  we  do  not  deal  with  a  simple  coating 
such  as  we  have  on  tinned  iron,  or  on  the  various  forms 
of  enamelled  pipe.  The  idea  is  that  the  zinc  shall 
protect  the  iron  by  virtue  of  a  galvanic  action  between 
the  two  metals,  and  it  does  protect  the  iron  for  a  time. 
When  the  pipes  are  exposed  to  the  action  of  water, 
corrosion  begins  at  once  :  at  first,  the  action  is  on  the 
zinc  alone,  provided  the  original  iron  was  free  from 
rust,  and  the  treatment  with  zinc  was  thorough  j  but 
after  a  time  the  zinc  which  remains  will  cease  to  pro- 
tect the  iron,  and  iron-rust  will  begin  to  form.  As 
regards  this  action,  it  is  simply  a  question  of  time. 
Water  that  has  passed  through  zincked  pipes  will  be 
found  almost  always,  if  not  invariably,  to  contain  zinc 
compounds  either  in  solution  or  in  suspension ;  the 
amount,  however,  is  generally  very  small.  As  to  the 
effect  of  such  water  on  health  there  is  some  difference 
of  opinion,  but  it  is  generally  believed  that  the  pipes 
may  be  safely  used. 

One  of  the  best  materials  for  service  pipes  is  wrought- 
iron  protected  by  the  Bower-Barff  process,  provided 
practical  experience  justifies  the  theoretical  expecta- 
tions. To  such  pipes,  coupled  without  the  use  of  red 
or  white  lead,  there  can  be  nothing  superior  from  a 


AND    THEIR  ADULTERATIONS. 


47 


sanitary  point  of  view,  and  for  use  in  wells  and  cisterns 
they  will  supply  a  very  serious  want.  Ordinary  wrought- 
iron  pipes,  although  possessing  many  advantages,  have 
the  great  disadvantage  of  rusting  very  readily  :  the  iron- 
rust  is  harmless  but  unsightly  in  drinking  water,  and 
may  render  the  water  unfit  for  culinary  purposes  and 
for  use  in  the  laundry. 

Popular  Tests. 

The  writer  has  little  sympathy  with  popular  tests- 
It  is  true  that  the  observations  on  odor  and  taste  and 
color  may  be  made  by  a  person  who  is  not  a  chemist. 
There  are  also  certain  qualitative  tests  that  any  intelli- 
gent person  can  learn  to  make  satisfactorily,  and  which 
would  serve  as  indications  to  the  chemist.  It  is  in 
general  true  of  popular  tests,  that  they  are  apt  to  lead 
either  to  an  unjustified  sense  of  security  or  to  an  un- 
necessary feeling  of  alarm.  The  following  test  for 
sewage  contamination,  proposed  by  Heisch,  and  rec- 
ommended by  others,  has  some  value. 

Put  some  of  the  water  (say  half  a  pint)  into  a  clean, 
colorless,  glass-stoppered  bottle,  add  a  few  grains  of 
white  sugar,  shake  until  the  sugar  has  dissolved,  and 
leave  the  bottle  freely  exposed  to  the  light  in  a  warm 


48  FOOD  MATERIALS 

room  for  a  week  or  ten  days.  If  the  water  becomes 
turbid,  it  is  open  to  suspicion  of  sewage  contamination ; 
if  it  remains  clear,  it  is  probably  safe. 

Collection  of  Samples. 

In  connection  with  the  chemical  examination  of 
water,  the  importance  of  taking  due  care  in  the  collec- 
tion of  samples  may  be  alluded  to.  The  best  vessel 
for  collecting  water  for  analysis  is  a  glass-stoppered 
bottle  j  a  clean  demijohn  which  has  never  been  used 
for  any  other  purpose  and  which  is  stopped  with  a  new 
and  clean  cork  answers  perfectly  well,  and  is  often 
more  convenient.  Tin  cans  or  stoneware  jugs  are  not 
suitable. 

Considerable  care  is  necessary  in  order  to  get  a  fair 
sample  of  the  water.  The  demijohn  should  be  rinsed 
several  times  thoroughly  with  the  water  to  be  collected 
and  finally  filled  not  quite  to  the  mouth.  The  cork 
should  be  washed  with  the  same  water,  and  the  demi- 
john stoppered  tightly.  The  stopper  should  be  tied 
over  with  a  piece  of  cloth  or  "  bandage  gum,"  and  the 
string  sealed  with  sealing-wax,  that  the  water  may  not 
be  tampered  with  in  transit. 


AND    THEIR  ADULTERATIONS.  49 

If  the  water  be  taken  from  a  pump  or  from  a  faucet, 
enough  water  should  be  pumped  or  allowed  to  run  to 
waste  to  thoroughly  clear  the  pipes.  In  taking  water 
from  a  pond  or  river,  it  will  generally  be  most  con- 
venient to  use  a  clean  crockery  pitcher,  which  may  be 
filled  by  plunging  it  beneath  the  surface  (so  as  to  avoid 
any  scum  or  floating  material),  and  then  emptied  into 
the  demijohn ;  or  a  new  and  clean  tin  dipper  may  be 
employed.  If  a  glass  bottle  is  used,  it  may  be  plunged 
directly  into  the  water  and  thus  filled.  In  taking  water 
from  a  river,  the  middle  of  the  stream  should  be  chosen 
if  only  one  sample  is  taken. 

TEA. 

The  tea  plant,  Thea  Sinensis,  an  evergreen,  and 
closely  allied  to  the  genus  Camellia,  is  a  native  of 
China,  Japan,  and  the  north  of  Eastern  India.  The 
finest  tea  of  China  is  grown  between  the  twenty- 
seventh  and  thirty-first  parallels  of  north  latitude. 
But  the  plant  will  flourish  from  the  equator  to  forty 
degrees  north  latitude. 

Tea  has  been  used  as  a  beverage  by  the  Chinese  for 
ages  past.  Tradition  refers  to  it  as  early  as  the  third 
4 


So 


FOOD  MATERIALS 


century.  It  first  became  known  to  Europeans  about 
the  end  of  the  sixteenth  century.  Until  the  middle  of 
the  seventeenth,  the  price  was  from  twenty-five  to  fifty 
dollars  a  pound ;  and  a  remarkable  feature  in  its  history 
is  the  reduction  which  has  taken  place  in  its  commer- 
cial value,  tea  now  being  sold  at  Canton  at  from 
fifteen  to  twenty  cents  a  pound,  and  in  this  country 
at  fifty  cents  to  one  dollar.  Tea  is  used  at  present  by 
about  one  third  of  the  human  race.  The  consumption 
per  head  in  Great  Britain  in  1835  was  ^ess  tnan  one 
and  a  half  pounds.  In  1877  it  was  four  and  a  half 
pounds.  In  the  United  States  in  1876  it  was  one  and 
a  half  pounds.  Among  European  nations  tea  is  pre- 
eminently an  English,  Russian,  and  Dutch  drink. 

The  quality  of  tea  depends  upon  its  flavor,  which 
should  be  delicate  and  yet  full ;  and  this  is  affected  by 
the  time  of  gathering,  whether  or  not  the  first  of  the 
lour  yearly  gatherings,  by  the  age  of  the  tree,  by  the 
country  in  which  it  is  grown,  by  the  quality  of  the  soil, 
and  by  the  situation  of  the  plantation.  The  two  classes 
of  tea,  the  black  and  the  green,  are  produced  in  the 
same  region,  and  often  from  the  same  trees.  Green 
tea  is  rolled  and  dried  very  quickly,  the  whole  process 
being  finished  in  an  hour  or  two,  so  that  the  leaf  keeps 


AND    THE  IK  ADULTERATIONS.  51 

its  color.  The  idea  that  green  tea  is  obtained  by  dry- 
ing the  leaves  in  copper  pans  is  a  popular  error,  which 
has  been  persisted  in  for  a  long  time,  without  a  shadow 
of  truth  for  its  foundation.  For  black  tea  the  leaves 
are  beaten  and  exposed  to  the  air  for  some  time,  so 
that  a  sort  of  fermentation  sets  in.  The  production  of 
the  aromatic  flavors  is  due  to  the  processes  of  drying, 
since  the  leaves  when  freshly  plucked  have  neither  the 
odor  nor  flavor  of  the  dried  leaves.  Hence  different 
qualities  of  tea  may  be  made  from  the  same  leaves, 
according  to  the  treatment  while  drying.  This  is  the 
source  of  the  various  kinds  found  in  the  market  under 
the  names  Hyson,  Oolong,  etc.  Some  teas  are  scented 
with  fragrant  leaves. 

Substitutes  for  tea  are  found  in  nearly  every  country. 
Sage  leaves  were  frequently  so  used  in  England,  a  cen- 
tury ago.  Labrador  tea  was  prepared  by  the  native 
American  tribes.  The  leaves  of  thirty-two  plants  are 
known  to  have  been  thus  used. 

The  important  constituent  of  tea  is  an  alkaloid  called 
tJichic.  It  is  present  in  varying  proportions,  from  one 
to  four  per  cent.  The  theine  is  supposed  to  be  in  com- 
bination with  tannin,  which  is  the  most  abundant  soluble 
substance  in  tea,  usually  from  sixteen  to  twenty-seven 


s 2  FOOD  MATERIALS 

per  cent.  To  the  tannin  is  due  the  constipating  effect 
of  tea.  The  longer  the  tea  leaves  are  steeped,  the  more 
tannin  the  solution  contains.  Regard  for  the  lining  of 
one's  stomach  would  lead  one  to  avoid  all  steeped  teas. 
The  infusion  should  be  prepared  immediately  before 
drinking. 

The  odor  and  flavor  of  tea  are  due  to  an  essential 
oil  which  is  present  in  very  small  quantity,  and  which  is 
developed  during  the  roasting  and  drying.  For  a  good 
tea,  the  volatile  oil  must  not  escape.  To  make  a  good 
pot  of  tea,  scald  out  the  pot  with  boiling  hot  soft  water, 
place  the  tea  in  it  as  soon  as  possible,  pour  over  it  the 
boiling  water,  and  close  the  pot  immediately  :  allow  it 
to  stand  in  a  hot  place  for  a  few  minutes,  but  do  not  let 
it  boil.  Tea  as  drunk  in  China  is  always  taken  clear, 
without  any  addition  of  milk  or  sugar.  The  Russians 
add  a  few  drops  of  lemon. 

Lo-Yu,  a  learned  Chinese  who  lived  somewhere 
about  700  a.  d.,  says  of  the  effect  of  an  infusion  of  tea, 
that  it  tempers  the  spirits  and  harmonizes  the  mind, 
dispels  lassitude  and  relieves  fatigue,  awakens  thought 
and  prevents  drowsiness,  lightens  or  refreshes  the  body, 
and  clears  the  perceptive  faculties.  Modern  writers 
claim  that  tea  excites  the  brain  to  increased  activity, 


AND    THEIR  ADULTERATIONS.  53 

while  it  soothes  and  stills  the  vascular  system,  and 
hence  its  use  in  inflammatory  diseases,  and  as  a  cure  for 
headache.  Taken  in  excess,  it  has  the  effect  of  a  vege- 
table poison.  It  affects  different  people  differently,  and 
when  it  causes  nervous  excitement  its  use  should  be 
avoided.  The  infusion  is  stimulating  and  not  nutritive  ; 
hence  the  use  of  tea  and  toast,  so  common  among  the 
workingwomen  of  America,  is  very  poor  economy,  and 
is  an  evil,  one  had  almost  said,  second  only  to  the  use 
of  alcohol.  Indeed,  it  has  been  called  the  tobacco  of 
women ;  for  while  the  tea  does  undoubtedly  allow  one 
to  live  on  less  food,  it  does  not  supply  the  place  of 
food  for  any  length  of  time.  If  the  exhausted  leaves 
were  eaten  after  the  infusion  was  drunk,  as  is  the  case 
in  several  countries,  it  would  be  more  economical,  since 
they  contain  about  twenty  per  cent  of  nitrogenous  mat- 
ter, insoluble  in  water.  On  the  coast  of  South  America 
and  on  the  slopes  of  the  Himalayas  the  spent  leaves  are 
handed  round  among  the  company,  sometimes  on  a 
silver  salver,  and  much  relished.  In  some  places  the 
leaves  are  powdered  and  mixed  with  various  nutritious 
substances,  and  eaten  without  infusion. 

According  to  the  best  authorities  tea  should  not  be 
drunk  as  a  beverage  by  persons  under  middle  age,  as 


54  FOOD  MATERIALS 

it  is  liable  to  interfere  with  the  development  of  the 
nervous  system.  But  for  elderly  and  delicate  people 
whose  stomachs  are  incapable  of  digesting  much  food 
the  use  of  tea  is  often  valuable,  as  it,  like  coffee,  pre- 
vents the  waste  of  tissue,  or,  in  other  words,  a  person 
requires  less  food  when  tea  is  taken  ;  but  it  should  not 
be  used  for  this  purpose  by  working  people,  since  it  tells 
upon  the  digestive  power  of  the  stomach,  and  nothing 
can  supply  day  after  day  the  lack  of  nutritious  food. 
Physicians  now  recognize  a  tea  dyspepsia,  and  no  one 
with  a  hope  for  better  digestion  should  drink  tea  con- 
stantly three  times  a  day. 

Adulterations  of  Tea. 
When  tea  was  ten  dollars  a  pound  there  was  great 
temptation  to  mix  other  leaves  with  the  genuine,  or 
even  to  substitute  them  entirely;  also  to  add  to  the 
weight  by  iron  filings,  etc.,  or  sand  gummed  on  plum- 
bago and  soapstone  ;  the  exhausted  leaves  were  also 
used.  Since  the  price  has  fallen,  very  much  less  adul- 
teration is  practised.  It  will  not  pay  to  work  over  the 
tea  leaves  to  any  extent,  yet  they  are  occasionally 
adulterated,  and  inferior  grades  due  to  carelessness  in 
preparation  and   to   less  careful  cultivation  are   quite 


AND    THEIR  ADULTERATIONS.  55 

common.  In  England  all  tea  is  sampled  and  in- 
spected, and  in  1879,  of  five  hundred  and  seventy- 
five  specimens  examined,  only  three  were  found  to 
require  special  disposal,  —  one  damaged  by  water,  one 
consisting  of  exhausted  leaves,  and  one  sanded. 

The  addition  of  mineral  matter  may  be  detected  by 
burning  a  weighed  quantity  —  one  gram  or  more  — 
in  a  platinum  dish,  and  weighing  the  ash.  Good  tea 
gives  from  five  to  seven  per  cent  of  ash.  If  the  leaves 
are  exhausted,  the  per  cent  will  be  less.  To  ascertain 
the  strength  of  the  tea  an  infusion  is  the  best  test.  If 
the  decoction  is  very  high-colored,  the  tea  has  probably 
been  doctored.  If  there  is  not  much  extract,  the  leaves 
have  been  exhausted.  The  surest  test  of  this  is  the 
specific  gravity  of  the  solution  ;  but  even  this  is  a  deli- 
cate test,  since  the  specific  gravity  of  a  solution  of  two 
hundred  grains  of  tea  in  two  thousand  grains  of  water 
is  from  1.012  to  1. 014,  while  that  of  exhausted  leaves  is 
1.003  to  1.0057.  Good  tea  should  yield  twenty-six  per 
cent,  and  often  as  much  as  thirty-six  per  cent,  of  its 
weight  to  boiling  water. 

Dr.  Farquharson  of  Iowa  reports  :  "  The  proper  ex- 
amination of  tea  is  a  difficult  and  delicate  task,  only  to 
be  undertaken  by  an  expert,  who  combines  the  attain- 


5 6  FOOD  MATERIALS 

ments  of  a  chemist,  a  microscopist,  and  a  tea-taster." 
The  most  frequent  coloring-matters  or  facings  now  in 
use  are  Prussian-blue  and  indigo.  Prussian-blue  may 
be  detected  by  the  addition  of  a  solution  of  potash. 
This  causes  the  color  to  disappear,  but  it  can  be  re- 
stored by  an  acid.  Indigo  is  not  affected  by  potash  in 
the  cold,  but  is  decomposed  by  permanganate  of  potash. 
The  readiest  method  of  detecting  the  addition  of  other 
kinds  of  leaves  is  by  the  microscope  ;  but  this  of  course 
requires  training  in  the  use  of  the  instrument,  and  a 
knowledge  of  the  appearance  of  the  real  tea  leaves. 
The  quantity  of  Prussian-blue  mixed  with  gypsum  or 
clay  is  about  one  grain  to  the  ounce :  probably  not 
one  third  of  this  is  Prussian-blue,  so  that  the  dose  is 
homoeopathic. 

The  Russians  are  said  to  have  the  most  delicious  tea 
of  any  nation  in  Europe.  They  have  an  inland  trade 
with  China,  and  choice  teas  are  directly  imported,  with- 
out exposure  to  the  heat  and  close  air  of  the  hold  of  a 
vessel,  so  injurious  to  teas  of  a  delicate  flavor.  Their 
method  of  making  tea  also  has  much  to  do  with  its 
fine  flavor,  and  as  samovars  are  a  national  feature,  and 
now  beginning  to  be  imported  and  used  in  this  country, 
I  will  endeavor  to  describe  them  and  their  use. 


AND    THEIR  ADULTERATIONS.  57 

The  samovar  is  a  large  brass  urn,  lined  with  block 
tin.  The  urn  and  the  stand  which  raises  it  from  the 
table  are  all  in  one  piece,  in  those  I  have  seen.  The 
urns  hold  from  four  to  eight  quarts  of  water,  which  is 
poured  in  through  a  small  hole,  three  quarters  of  an 
inch  in  diameter,  in  the  top,  and  they  are  emptied  by  a 
stop-cock  or  faucet,  like  any  hot-water  urn.  The  fire 
for  heating  the  water  is  arranged  in  this  way.  Directly 
through  the  centre  of  the  urn,  from  top  to  bottom,  runs 
a  hollow  cylinder,  which  is  closed  below  by  a  little 
grate,  the  bars  of  which  show  below  the  body  of  the 
urn.  These  bars  are  fine  enough  to  prevent  any  fire 
from  falling  upon  the  tray  or  table  on  which  it  stands, 
and  the  urn  stands  sufficiently  high  from  the  table  to 
prevent  any  danger  from  heat.  The  metal  of  the 
stand  is  solid  below,  so  there  is  no  danger  from  fire. 
At  the  upper  end  the  cylinder  rises  above  the  urn  an 
inch  or  two,  and  has  a  tall  chimney  of  brass,  that  can 
be  taken  off  by  its  odd  straight  handle,  as  required. 

It  is  usually  one  servant's  duty  in  Russia  to  take 
care  of  the  samovar,  to  fill  it  with  the  freshest  of  water, 
to  kindle  the  fire,  and  to  bring  it  in  when  all  is  ready 
for  the  table.  A  twist  of  paper  is  placed  in  the  bottom 
of  the  cylinder,  with  some  splinters  of  kindling  wood. 


5  8  FOOD  MATERIALS 

Upon  this  are  placed  bits  of  charcoal  broken  into  bits 
the  size  of  walnuts.  The  Russians  themselves  often 
have  a  special  charcoal  made  from  cocoa-nuts,  the 
hard  shells  making  a  very  dense,  odorless  charcoal, 
which  gives  off  an  intense  heat.  The  fire  is  lighted 
from  the  grate  below.  The  chimney  is  put  on,  and  the 
fire  is  allowed  to  burn  until  all  smoke  and  smell  from 
the  wood  and  paper  have  passed  away,  and  the  charcoal 
is  in  a  glow.  Then  it  is  carried  in  and  set  upon  the 
table. 

As  soon  as  the  water  sends  out  a  jet  of  steam  from 
the  hole  at  the  top,  beside  the  cylinder,  the  tea  is 
made  by  the  hostess.  Now  notice  that  the  water 
has  just  reached  the  boiling  point.  It  has  lost  none 
of  its  life  or  air.  It  is  simply  fresh,  pure  water  brought 
to  the  boiling  point.  The  teapot  is  made  scalding 
hot,  and  the  tea  is  taken  from  a  caddy  upon  the 
table.  At  first  only  a  little  water  is  poured  upon  it. 
The  chimney  is  taken  off  and  the  tea-pot  is  set  upon 
the  cylinder  over  the  glowing  coals,  upon  the  same 
principle  as  setting  the  tea-pot  in  the  top  of  the 
boiling  tea-kettle  on  the  fire,  as  we  often  see  done 
here  in  our  kitchens.  In  a  few  moments,  more  boil- 
ing water  is  added,  and  the  tea-pot  replaced  over  the 


AND    THEIR  ADULTERATIONS.  59 

coals.  The  tea  is  poured  into  the  cups  when  it  has 
steeped  sufficiently  long,  sugar  is  adde'd,  and  instead 
of  cream  a  slice  of  lemon  is  slipped  into  each  cup. 
Fresh  tea  and  water  are  put  in  the  tea-pot,  and  it 
is  again  placed  over  the  coals. 

To  empty  the  water  from  the  samovar,  it  is  sufficient 
to  let  it  run  out  from  the  faucet.  This  is  first  done, 
and  then  the  coal  and  ashes  are  shaken  out  by  turning 
the  samovar  upside  down,  as  it  does  not  take  apart. 
But  in  Russia  the  samovar  is  often  kept  hot  the  greater 
part  of  the  day,  fresh  charcoal  and  water  being  occasion- 
ally added  as  required,  until  the  time  comes  for  a  fresh 
samovar  to  be  made  ready  for  the  table. 

COFFEE. 

One  tradition  relates  that,  in  antique  days,  a  poor 
dervish,  who  lived  in  a  valley  of  Arabia  Felix,  ob- 
served a  strange  hilarity  in  his  goats  on  their  return 
home  every  evening.  To  find  out  the  cause  of  this, 
he  watched  them  closely  one  day,  and  observed  that 
they  eagerly  devoured  the  blossoms  and  fruit  of  a  tree 
he  had  hitherto  disregarded.  He  tried  the  effect  of 
this  food  upon  himself,  and  was  thrown  into  such  a 


60  FOOD  MATERIALS 

state  of  exhilaration  that  his  neighbors  accused  him  of 
having  drunk  of  the  forbidden  wine ;  but  he  revealed 
to  them  his  discovery,  and  they  at  once  agreed  that 
Allah  had  sent  the  coffee  plant  to  the  faithful  as  a 
substitute  for  the  wine. 

The  name  of  coffee  is  given  to  a  beverage  prepared 
from  the  seeds  of  plants,  which  are  roasted,  ground, 
and  infused  in  boiling  water.  The  seeds  most  used  are 
those  of  the  Arabian  coffee  tree  (an  evergreen,  Caffea 
Arabica),  which  belongs  to  the  natural  order  Cincho- 
nacese,  the  same  order  to  which  belongs  the  tree  from 
which  is  obtained  the  Peruvian  bark  of  commerce.  It 
is  probable  that  the  use  of  coffee  has  been  known  from 
time  immemorial  in  Abyssinia,  where  the  tree  is  native. 
In  Persia  it  is  known  to  have  been  in  use  as  early  as 
a.d.  875. 

The  first  allusion  to  coffee  in  an  English  book  is 
believed  to  be  in  Burton's  Anatomy  of  Melancholy : 
"  The  Turks  have  a  drink  called  coffee,  (for  they  use 
no  wine,)  so  named  of  a  berry  as  black  as  soot,  and 
as  bitter,  which  they  sup  up  as  warm  as  they  can 
suffer,  because  they  find  by  experience  that  that  kind 
of  drink,  so  used,  helpeth  digestion  and  produceth 
alacrity." 


AND   THEIR  ADULTERA7I0NS.  6 1 

While  in  Mahometan  countries  its  use  as  an  anti- 
soporific  in  the  long  devotional  exercises  rendered 
it  obnoxious  to  the  conservative  priests,  —  and  while 
some  held  it  to  be  an  intoxicant,  and  so  prohibited 
by  the  Koran,  in  England  it  seems  to  have  been  op- 
posed by  liquor-dealers,  who  alleged  that  the  popularity 
of  the  coffee-houses  was  so  great  as  to  draw  away 
their  custom.  The  popularity  of  the  coffee-houses 
also  aroused  suspicion  of  disloyalty  in  the  gatherings, 
so  that  they  were  made  the  pbject  of  a  royal  procla- 
mation by  Charles  II.  in  1675. 

Coffee  was  introduced  into  England  about  the  same 
time  as  tea,  and  its  use  increased  very  rapidly,  until  it 
reached  its  maximum  in  1854,  when  the  import  into 
Great  Britain  was  37,441,373  pounds.  Since  then  the 
consumption  has  decreased,  partly  owing  to  a  greater 
use  of  tea,  and  partly  to  the  increase  ofcoffee  substi- 
tutes. The  amount  per  head  used  in  Great  Britain 
was  one  and  a  quarter  pounds  in  1857;  in  1875— 
77,  only  three  fourths  of  a  pound.  In  the  United 
States  it  is  about  eight  pounds ;  in  Holland  and  Ger- 
many, about  fourteen. 

The  introduction  of  coffee  into  Europe  was  bitterly 
opposed,  and  the  use  of  it  denounced  from  the  pulpit. 


62  FOOD  MATERIALS 

Nevertheless  the  tree  has  been  cultivated  in  all  tropical 
countries  which  have  been  colonized  by  Europeans. 
Brazil  now  supplies  two  thirds  of  the  coffee  of  the 
world. 

The  most  valuable  constituent  of  coffee  is  caffeine, 
an  alkaloid  identical  with  the  theine  of  tea.  There  is 
present  about  one  per  cent  of  it.  The  peculiar  flavor 
and  aroma  of  coffee  are  due  to  one  or  more  oils  or 
fats,  which  become  changed  to  peculiar  aromatic  com- 
pounds in  the  roasting.  There  are  some  thirteen  per 
cent  of  these,  and  they  probably  possess  the  stimulat- 
ing properties  noticed  in  the  infusion.  Caffeic  acid,  an 
astringent  somewhat  like  the  tannin  of  tea,  is  present, 
but  only  from  three  to  five  per  cent.  Hence,  the  ac- 
tion of  coffee  is  not  as  deleterious  to  the  coatings  of 
the  stomach  as  is  that  of  tea.  Coffee  also  contains 
sugar  to  five  or  seven  per  cent,  which  is  all  converted 
into  caramel  in  roasting. 

The  exhausted  berries  also  contain  nutritious  nitro- 
genous matter,  and  some  Eastern  nations  drink  grounds 
and  all.  In  Sumatra  the  leaves  are  used,  and  seem 
to  have  a  large  proportion  of  the  properties  of  the 
berry.1 

1  See  Chemistry  of  Common  Life,  p.  141. 


AND    THEIR  ADULTERATIONS.  63 

The  effect  of  coffee  on  the  human  system  is  to 
counteract  the  tendency  to  sleep,  and  it  is  almost  cer- 
tain that  it  was  this  property  which  originally  led  to  its 
use  as  a  beverage.  It  also  excites  the  nervous  system, 
and  when  taken  in  excess  produces  contractions  and 
tremors  of  the  muscles,  and  a  feeling  of  buoyancy  and 
exhilaration  somewhat  similar  to  that  produced  by 
alcohol,  but  does  not  end  with  depression  or  collapse. 
Professor  Johnstone  thus  describes  the  properties  and 
effects  of  coffee  :  "  It  exhilarates,  arouses,  and  keeps 
awake  ;  it  counteracts  the  stupor  occasioned  by  fatigue, 
by  disease,  or  opium  ;  it  allays  hunger  to  a  certain  ex- 
tent; it  gives  to  the  weary  increased  strength  and 
vigor,  and  imparts  a  feeling  of  comfort  and  repose." 
Its  physiological  effects  upon  the  system,  so  far  as 
they  have  been  investigated,  appear  to  be,  that,  while  it 
makes  the  brain  more  active,  it  soothes  the  body  gener- 
ally, makes  the  change  and  waste  of  matter  slower,  and 
the  demand  for  food  in  consequence  less. 

For  soldiers  and  travellers  exposed  to  great  hard- 
ships, coffee  is  the  best  agent  known  for  restoration  of 
the  exhausted  energies.  Its  use  can  be  abused,  like 
that  of  any  other  good  thing,  but,  used  understand- 
ing^, coffee  is  an  important  addition  to  one's  diet. 


64  FOOD  MATERIALS 

The  adulterations  of  coffee  are  mostly  seeds,  as 
beans  or  pease ;  or  roots,  as  chiccory,  dandelion,  and 
carrots.  As  yet,  there  has  been  no  seed  found  which, 
when  roasted  and  ground,  corresponds '  with  coffee, 
either  in  its  physiological  properties  or  in  the  chemical 
composition. 

The  detection  of  the  presence  of  chiccory,  caramel, 
and  some  of  the  sweet  roots,  as  turnips,  carrots,  and 
parsnips,  is  quite  easy.  If  a  few  grains  of  the  sus- 
pected sample  are  placed  on  the  surface  of  water  in  a 
glass  vessel,  beaker,  or  tumbler,  each  particle  of  chic- 
cory, etc.,  will  become  surrounded  by  a  yellow-brown 
cloud,  which  rapidly  diffuses  through  the  water  until 
the  whole  becomes  colored. 

Pure  coffee,  under  the  same  conditions,  gives  no 
sensible  color  to  the  water  until  after  the  lapse  of 
about  fifteen  minutes.  Caramel  (burnt  sugar)  of 
course  colors  the  water  very  deeply.  Dandelion-root 
gives  a  deeper  color  than  coffee,  but  not  as  deep  as 
chiccory ;  the  same  is  true  of  bread  raspings.  Both 
these  adulterations  may  be  more  readily  detected  by 
the  taste,  and  the  bread  by  its  softening.  Beans  and 
pease  give  much  less  color  to  the  water  than  pure 
coffee ;  they  can  be  readily  detected  by  the  micro- 


AND    THEIR  ADULTERATIONS.  65 

scope,  as  can  roasted  figs  and  dates,  or  date-stones. 
But  as  was  said  under  tea,  the  microscopical  examina- 
tion must  be  made  by  one  who  has  skill.  The  use  of 
the  microscope  is  not  to  be  learned  in  one  lesson.  In 
months  of  practice  one  sees  more  and  more  each  time 
the  instrument  is  used,  so  that,  while  it  is  an  invaluable 
aid  to  those  accustomed  to  its  use,  it  is  as  unreliable  as 
the  chemical  tests  in  the  hands  of  the  unskilled.1 

The  preparation  of  good  coffee  requires  only  an 
understanding  of  its  properties,  and  is  not  as  difficult 
or  as  dependent  upon  complicated  apparatus  as  is 
often  supposed.  Raw  coffee,  when  kept  dry,  improves 
with  age.  The  best  Java  is  said  to  be  some  seven  or 
eight  years  old.  To  prepare  the  kernel  for  use,  it  must 
first  be  properly  roasted  by  a  quick  heat,  like  that  used 
for  popping  corn.  The  kernels  should  swell  and  pop 
in  much  the  same  way,  though  not  to  the  same  extent. 
When  the  flavor  has  thus  been  developed,  and  the 
berry  made  brittle,  it  is  to  be  ground  in  a  mill  or 
pounded  in  a  mortar  as  fine  as  may  be,  and  then,  to 
obtain  the  full  strength,  placed  in  an  earthen-ware 
vessel,  covered  with  cold  water,  allowed  to  stand  for 

1  For  illustrations  of  the  appearance  of  tea  leaves,  and  other 
leaves  and  berries,  see  Bell,  Hassall,  Blyth,  and  Konig. 
5 


66  FOOD  MATERIALS 

some  hours,  and  brought  to  the  boiling  heat  just  before 
use.  While  this  is  the  most  economical  treatment,  most 
people  prepare  an  infusion  made  by  pouring  boiling 
water  upon  the  fine  coffee.  The  vessel  should  then  be 
closed  and  allowed  to  stand  at  a  boiling  heat  for  five  to 
ten  minutes  :  it  should  never  boil  violently,  as  the  deli- 
cate aroma  of  the  coffee  is  then  lost.  "  Coffee,  to  be 
good,  must  be  made  strong.  From  one  to  two  ounces 
to  a  pint  of  water  is  recommended ;  three  times  the 
volume  of  milk  may  then  be  added.  This  is  bet- 
ter than  to  add  water.  In  countries  where  the  best 
coffee  is  made,  there  is  a  concurrence  of  opinion  that 
roasted  coffee  should  not  come  in  contact  with  any 
metal;  but  that  it  should  be  powdered  in  a  wooden 
mortar,  kept  in  glass  or  porcelain,  and  infused  in 
porcelain  or  earthen-ware  jugs,  or  other  closed 
vessels."  An  expensive  method  of  preparation  is  by 
the  percolation  of  boiling  water  through  the  coffee, 
drop  by  drop.  The  simplest  apparatus  for  this  is 
a  flannel  bag  suspended  in  the  coffee-pot,  and  which 
carries  the  coffee. 


les  Cal. 
^A7?    77Z£Zff  ADULTERATIONS.  67 

COCOA. 

The  cocoa  of  commerce  is  chiefly  prepared  from 
the  seeds  of  the  plant  Tkeobroma  cacao,  which  grows 
in  the  West  Indies,  Brazil,  and  Guiana ;  also  in  some 
parts  of  Asia  and  Africa. 

The  term  tkeobroma  implies  food  for  the  gods,  and 
the  name  was  given  to  the  plant  by  Linnaeus,  who  is 
said  to  have  been  very  fond  of  the  beverage  prepared 
from  cocoa.  The  Mexicans  called  it  cacaoa  qicahnitl, 
and  the  beverage  chocolatl ;  and  we  probably  derive 
from  these  native  names  our  words  cocoa  and  choc- 
olate. It  was  introduced  into  Europe  by  the  Spaniards 
in  1520,  and  appears  to  have  been  known  to  the 
inhabitants  of  Central  America  from  time  immemorial. 
England  uses  about  five  ounces  per  head  annually. 

The  cocoa  bean  contains  fifty  per  cent  of  fat,  thir- 
teen per  cent  of  nitrogenous  substance,  half  of  which 
is  soluble,  about  seven  per  cent  of  a  tannin-like  prin- 
ciple, four  per  cent  of  starch,  and  about  one  per  cent 
of  theobromine,  an  alkaloid  resembling  theine.  Thus 
it  combines  in  a  remarkable  way  the  important  sub- 
stances which  constitute  a  perfect  food,  and  it  is  not 
strange  that  it  holds  so  high  a  place  in  popular  favor, 


68  FOOD  MATERIALS 

yet  the  large  percentage  of  fat  renders  it  too  rich  to 
be  taken  as  an  addition  to  an  otherwise  hearty  meal : 
hence  the  various  preparations  in  which  the  most  of 
the  fat  is  extracted.  A  cup  of  cocoa  taken  with 
milk  is  in  itself  a  nutritive  drink,  —  almost  of  the 
nature  of  soup,  since  cocoa  is  not  soluble,  only  held 
in  suspension. 

Cocoa  nibs  are  the  cracked  beans;  but  since  some 
time  is  required  to  soften  them,  the  prepared  forms 
are  preferred,  with  or  without  the  fat,  chocolate  hav- 
ing more  fat  than  some  other  preparations.  Shells  are 
the  husks  destitute  of  the  fat,  but  containing  more 
astringent  substance. 

The  chief  additions  to  chocolate  and  prepared 
cocoa  are  starch  and  sugar.  Sometimes  ferruginous 
earths  have  been  found,  and  occasionally  foreign  fats 
are  used. 

In  making  tea  we  make  an  infusion.  In  making 
coffee  we  make  either  an  infusion  or  a  decoction. 
Now  in  making  cocoa  from  the  nibs  or  the  cracked 
cocoa,  we  make  a  decoction ;  that  is,  the  cocoa  must 
actually  boil.  If  it  stands  upon  the  stove  or  range, 
and  steeps  without  boiling,  we  have  an  infusion,  and  we 


AND    THEIR  ADULTERATIONS.  69 

obtain  as  a  result  an  intensely  bitter  drink.  But  if  it 
boils,  —  and  it  is  an  important,  curious  fact  the  dif- 
ference a  few  degrees  of  heat  will  make,  —  we  have 
a  smooth,  oily,  nutty  beverage,  which  is  most  agreeable 
to  drink,  and  very  nutritious  also,  which  the  bitter 
beverage  is  not.  There  is  the  same  difference  be- 
tween an  infusion  and  a  decoction  of  coffee,  but  the 
bitter  of  coffee  is  not  so  unpleasant  nor  so  marked. 
Tea,  on  the  contrary,  and  also  all  herb  teas,  like  mint, 
catnip,  etc.,  are  harsh  and  bitter  when  boiled,  losing 
all  their  fragrance  and  delicate  flavor.  Tea  is  more  of 
a  mere  beverage  than  coffee,  which  approaches  a  liquid 
food,  though  not  as  nearly  as  cocoa  does. 


III. 


CEREAL     FObDS.  —  BARLEY,     RICE,     OATS, 
MAIZE,   RYE,   AND   WHEAT. 

'THHE  cereals  all  belong  to  the  family  of  grasses, 
and  some  member  of  the  group  flourishes  in 
every  latitude.  Barley  grows  even  within  the  Arctic 
Circle,  and  thence  southward  are  found,  in  the  follow- 
ing order,  oats,  rye,  wheat,  maize,  while  within  the 
tropics  rice  is  found.  The  seeds  of  these  plants  have 
been  used  for  the  food  of  man  from  time  immemo- 
rial. The  Egyptians  have  a  tradition  that  barley  was 
the  first  to  be  so  used.  They  are  the  most  important 
of  all  food  substances. 

A  general  description  will  serve  for  all  the  seeds  or 
kernels.  The  shape  is  from  round  to  oval  or  oblong, 
with  a  groove  on  one  side  running  the  length  of  the 
kernel.  This  indentation  serves  to  protect  the  germ 
which  it  encloses.  Outside  the  germ  are  usually  rec- 
ognized three  layers.  The  outer  layer,  which  serves 
to  hold  the  inner  ones  compactly  together  and  to  keep 


FOOD  MATERIALS.  7i 

them  dry,  is  made  up  chiefly  of  woody  fibre,  or  cellu- 
lose, and  is  comparatively  worthless  for  the  purpose  of 
nutrition.  Next,  there  are  in  most  grains  one  or  more 
layers  of  cells  which  contain  nitrogenous  and  phos- 
phatic  compounds,  while  within,  forming  the  body  of 
the  seed,  is  found  the  mass  of  starch  granules,  larger 
and  smaller,  with  intermingled  cells  of  the  glutinous  or 
albuminoid  constituents.  All  these  are  supported  in  a 
loose  framework  of  cellular  tissue.  The  proportion  of 
these  constituents  varies  greatly  in  the  different  grains 
and  in  varieties  of  the  same  grain.  Rice  has  the  largest 
proportion  of  starch,  and  oats  contain  the  most  oily  and 
phosphatic  material. 

The  term  flour  is  often  used  to  designate  the  meal 
or  powder  obtained  by  the  grinding  of  any  species  of 
grain  or  seed.  But  the  use  of  the  word  in  the  United 
States  is  for  the  most  part  limited  to  the  finely  ground 
portion,  the  more  starchy  portion ;  while  by  the  term 
meal — a  Saxon  word  meaning  finely  ground,  soft  to 
the  touch  —  is  understood  the  bran  or  the  product 
of  the  grinding  of  the  whole-  grain.  Both  terms  are 
generic,  and  are  qualified  by  a  descriptive  adjective ; 
as,  wheat  flour,  corn  meal,  etc. 

Barley  and  rice  are  for  the  most  part  cooked  whole, 


72  FOOD  MATERIALS 

oats  and  maize  are  coarsely  crushed,  while  wheat 
and  rye  are  finely  ground  and  separated  into  the 
flour  or  white  sifted  starch  and  gluten,  and  the  husk 
or  bran  which  is  left  after  the  bolting,  as  the  sifting 
is  technically  called. 

BARLEY. 

Barley  belongs  to  the  genus  Hordeum.  It  is  prob- 
ably a  native  of  Northern  or  Central  Asia,  but  it  has  a 
remarkable  power  of  adapting  itself  to  a  great  range 
of  temperature,  and  has  a  wider  distribution  than  wheat 
or  oats.  On  the  Eastern  continent  its  culture  extends 
from  700  north  latitude  to  420  south,  and  in  America 
from  620  north  to  200  south.  Its  use  as  an  article  of 
food  is  coeval  with  the  history  of  man.  It  yields  a 
greater  produce  per  acre  than  any  other  grain  except 
rice.  It  was  largely  cultivated  by  the  Romans,  and 
used  chiefly  as  food  for  horses.  In  England,  in  the 
middle  of  the  seventeenth  century,  it  was  commonly 
used  as  the  food  of  the  people,  because  it  grew  readily 
in  any  part  of  the  kingdom.  Since  improved  means 
of  transportation  have  brought  all  countries  within  a 
few  days  of  each  other,  wheat  is  carried  to  lands  in 
which  it  will  not  thrive,  and  people  no  longer  need 


AND    THEIR  ADULTERATIONS.  73 

to  live  on  the  produce  of  their  own  soil.  Barley  has 
less  starch,  and  more  cellulose,  mineral  matter,  and  fat, 
than  rice.  It  is  at  present  largely  used  for  the  manu- 
facture of  beer,  being  better  suited  for  it  than  the 
other  grains. 

RICE. 

The  rice  of  commerce  is  the  product  of  the  grass 
Oryza  sativa,  probably  a  native  of  the  East  Indies,  but 
cultivated  in  all  portions  of  tropical  and  sub-tropical 
regions.  It  forms  the  principal  food  of  nearly  one 
third  of  the  human  race,  and  enter's  largely  into  the 
diet  of  all  civilized  nations ;  although,  on  account  of 
the  excess  of  starch  over  the  nitrogenous  and  mineral 
constituents,  it  has  been  said  that  rice  can  only  be  the 
substantive  article  of  diet  of  an  indolent  and  feeble 
people.  The  outer  coat  of  woody  fibre  does  not  ad- 
here closely,  and  is  easily  removed,  so  that,  as  sent  to 
market,  the  shelled  grain  is  the  inner  or  starch  kernel. 
The  wild  rice  of  North  America  belongs  to  another  ge- 
nus, Zinania  aquatica.  It  grows  in  the  north  temperate 
regions,  and  deserves  more  notice  than  it  has  hitherto 
received.  Rice  flour  is  now  largely  used  in  the  adultera- 
tion of  many  finely  ground  foods  and  of  condiments. 


74 


FOOD  MATERIALS 


OATS. 


Oatmeal  is  prepared  from  two  species,  Ave?ia  sativa 
and  Arena  orientalis,  which  belong  to  the  same  natural 
order  as  wheat.  This  grain  grows  best  in  a  cool,  moist 
climate.  The  native  country  of  the  grass  is  not  known 
with  certainty.  There  is  evidence  that  the  plant  was 
known  in  Britain  in  1296,  and  mention  is  made  of  the 
use  of  oatmeal  porridge  as  an  article  of  food  in  1596. 
In  1698  the  consumption  of  oatmeal  was  second  only 
to  barley,  but  wheat  has  gradually  taken  its  place  in 
Southern  England.  By  kiln-drying  and  removing  the 
husk,  groats  or  grits  are  obtained,  which,  when  ground, 
yield  oatmeal.  The  husk  is  not  as  completely  removed 
as  in  the  case  of  rice,  and  the  meal  is  not  as  white  as 
wheat  meal.  Although  it  contains  a  large  proportion 
of  nitrogenous  matter  it  is  not  in  the  form  of  the  tena- 
cious gluten  of  wheat :  hence  it  will  not  make  light  or 
porous  bread.  Oatmeal  is  not  as  easily  digested  as 
wheat  flour,  and  as  a  staple  article  of  diet  it  is  best 
suited  to  persons  who  are  much  in  the  open  air  •  but 
a  portion  of  the  morning  meal  may  advantageously  be 
of  this  very  nutritious  grain.  Blyth  says  that  in  Eng- 
land it  is  sometimes  adulterated  with  barley  meal. 


AND    THEIR  ADULTERATIONS. 


MAIZE. 


75 


Maize,  Zta  mays,  is  remarkable  in  the  order  of 
grasses  for  the  large  size  of  its  grains,  and  for  the 
heads  into  which  they  are  collected.  It  grows  wild  in 
the  neighborhood  of  Mexico  and  in  tropical  America, 
and  has  now  been  introduced  into  every  quarter  of 
the  globe,  though  it  cannot  be  relied  upon  as  a  field 
crop  in  Great  Britain.  It  has  been  said,  that  what  wheat 
is  in  Europe  and  rice  in  Asia,  maize  is  in  America. 

Maize,  or  Indian  corn  as  it  is  called  in  the  United 
States,  was  not  much  consumed  in  England  until  the 
year  of  the  potato  famine,  in  1846,  when  hominy  was 
imported.  Now  about  8,000,000  pounds  are  annually 
imported,  chiefly  from  the  Black  and  Mediterranean 
Sea  borders.  It  is  an  excellent  food,  easily  digested, 
and  very  nutritious.  It  is  much  used  for  the  prepa- 
ration of  starch  and  for  "infant's  foods."  The  starch 
is  separated,  and  used  in  place  of  the  more  costly 
arrowroot. 

MILLET. 

Millet,  Paniaim  miliaceum,  also  a  native  of  tropical 
countries,  is  one  of  the  largest  fodder  grasses,  often 


76  FOOD  MATERIALS 

called  Guinea  grass  or  Guinea  corn.  This  grain  is  used 
for  human  food  only  in  hot  countries.  It  is  very- 
nutritious,  and,  so  far  as  composition  shows,  is  quite 
equal  to  wheat. 

RYE. 

Rye,  Secale  cerale,  is  nearly  allied  to  wheat.  The 
grains  are  smaller,  and  the  flour  not  so  white.  It  is 
very  rich  in  nitrogenous  substances.  It  grows  a  little 
farther  north  than  wheat  flourishes,  and  it  thrives  on  a 
sandy  soil,  too  poor  for  any  other  grain.  The  bread 
made  from  rye  flour  is  not  so  white  and  light  as  that 
made  from  wheat  flour,  but  it  is  extensively  used  in 
Europe.  The  chief  objection  to  its  use  is,  that  it  is 
liable  to  be  injured  by  a  fungus,  which  produces  an 
appearance  like  a  spur,  and  which  is  called  ergot.  If 
these  swelled  grains  are  ground  with  the  others,  the 
flour  is  rendered  unwholesome,  and  even  dangerous. 

WHEAT. 

Wheat  flour  is  prepared  from  the  seeds  of  the  genus 
Triticum.  The  two  varieties  commonly  cultivated  are 
Tritiaun  hybernum,  and  the  bearded  wheat,  Triticum 
astivicm.    The  cultivation  of  wheat  has  superseded  that 


AND    THEIR  ADULTERATIONS.  77 

of  all  other  grains  in  climates  where  it  will  thrive,  (in 
the  temperate  zone  as  far  as  6o°  north,)  but  in  the 
Middle  Ages  it  was  food  only  for  the  wealthy  classes. 
Its  use  has  been  constantly  on  the  increase,  until  it  is 
now  food  for  all  classes. 

The  reason  seems  to  be,  that  bread  made  from  it  has 
no  unpleasant  or  pronounced  taste,  so  that  the  most 
fastidious  palate  does  not  become  weary  of  it,  and 
has  a  light,  spongy  or  porous  character,  quite  peculiar 
to  the  wheat  loaf.  This  adapts  it  for  ready  digestion, 
and  is  due  to  the  peculiar  nature  of  gluten,  which  in 
good  flour  is  very  elastic,  and,  when  the  moistened 
dough  is  compressed,  causes  it  to  spring  back  again 
to  its  place. 

The  quality  of  the  prepared  flour  is  dependent  upon 
the  variety  of  wheat,  the  curing  of  the  ripened  grain, 
and  the  process  of  grinding. 

There  are  two  kinds  of  wheat,  the  hard  and  the 
soft,  which  are  referred  to  in  the  description  of  the 
grinding. 

The  curing  of  wheat  is  of  the  utmost  importance, 
for  if  the  grain  is  allowed  to  become  damp  and 
mouldy,  a  disagreeable  flavor  will  be  communicated 
to  the  flour. 


78  FOOD  MATERIALS 

For  grinding,  two  processes  are  used,  which  are 
known  as  high  and  low  milling.  In  early  times  the 
kernels  were  brayed  in  a  mortar,  and  later  they  were 
ground  between  stones.  Low  milling  is  a  grinding  be- 
tween two  large,  round  stones,  one  or  both  revolving 
at  so  small  a  distance  from  each  other  as  to  crush  the 
kernels,  which  are  caught,  as  it  were,  by  radial  grooves 
in  the  stones.  The  wheat  is  often  moistened  in  grind- 
ing, as  it  is  thought  to  be  more  readily  crushed.  The 
heat  developed  is  considerable,  so  that  the  tempera- 
ture of  the  flour  as  it  comes  from  the  stones  is  about 
120°  F.  The  heating,  and  the  grinding  of  a  portion  of 
the  husk  so  fine  that  it  sifts  with  the  body  of  the  grain, 
are  the  chief  objections  to  this  method.  The  action  is 
purely  a  single  crushing,  and  is  better  adapted  for  the 
softer  kinds  of  wheat  than  high  milling,  which  is  a  suc- 
cession of  crackings,  or  of  slight  and  partial  crushings, 
alternating  with  sifting  and  sorting. 

For  this  process  the  hard  wheats,  such  as  the 
Hungarian,  are  adapted.  In  general,  the  method 
may  be  described  as  follows.  A  series  of  cylindrical 
rolls  is  arranged  at  distances  so  graded  that,  when 
the  wheat  kernel  passes  between  the  first  set,  it  is 
merely  cracked ;  then  the  fragments  drop  between  the 


AND    THEIR  ADULTERATIONS.  79 

next  set,  and  are  again  cracked ;  and  so  on.  In  this 
way  the  husk  is  not  bruised,  only  flattened  out  and 
loosened,  so  that  the  dry  starch  granules  drop  out. 
The  flour  is  not  heated,  since  it  is  not  subjected  to 
friction,  and  since  it  falls  through  the  cool  air  between 
each  set  of  rolls.  It  is  thought  that  the  separation  of 
the  non-nutritious  portion  is  also  more  complete,  and 
hence  that  the  flour  is  richer  in  the  phosphates  and 
nitrogenous  substances,  which  are  found  in  the  layer  of 
cells  next  the  husk.  Since  there  are  no  particles  of 
bran  in  the  high-milled  flour,  it  is  whiter,  and  since  it 
has  been  ground  dry,  it  has  less  moisture  and  will  keep 
longer. 

It  is  thought  that  the  heat  developed  in  low  mill- 
ing may  change  somewhat  the  character  of  the  gluten, 
rendering  it  less  tenacious,  and  so  the  flour  less  fit 
for  the  making  of  light  bread.  Doubtless  this  has  its 
influence,  since  it  is  well  known  that  the  same  brand 
of  flour  will  differ  at  different  times,  without  any  ap- 
parent reason. 

There  is  also  a  mixture  of  the  two  processes  called 
half  high  milling.  A  plan  has  also  been  tried,  with 
some  success,  of  pulverizing  the  grains  by  friction  of 
the  kernels  upon  each  other,  the  wheat  being  kept  in 


8o  FOOD  MATERIALS 

motion  by  beaters  revolving  at  a  high  velocity  in  a 
hollow  cylinder. 

The  next  step  in  the  production  of  flour  is  the  sift- 
ing and  sorting.  The  sifting  is  generally  done  by  a 
series  of  sieves,  and  finally  by  bolt  cloth,  —  a  fine  silk 
cloth.  This  gives  the  fine  flour,  while  the  coarser 
grades  are  left  by  the  way. 

Low  milling  yields  about  eighty  per  cent  of  flours 
of  various  grades,  differing  comparatively  little  from 
each  other.  High  milling,  on  the  other  hand,  yields 
only  about  forty-five  per  cent  of  the  choicest  flour, 
such  as  the  famous  Vienna  bread  is  made  from,  with 
several  inferior  grades. 

Flour,  for  household  use  will  perhaps  average  seventy 
per  cent  of  starch  and  dextrine,  about  seven  per  cent 
each  of  sugar,  mineral  matter,  and  cellulose,  one  per 
cent  of  fat,  and  about  fifteen  per  cent  of  albuminous 
or  nitrogenous  substances.  These  constituents  are  so 
proportioned  as  to  render  wheat  flour  a  highly  nu- 
tritious food,  capable  by  itself  of  sustaining  life  and 
health. 

The  following  account  of  a  visit  to  one  of  the 
large  flour  mills  in  Minnesota,  in  1884,  will  be  of 
interest : — 


AND    THEIR  ADULTERATIONS.  8l 

"  The  wheat  is  poured  into  the  mill  from  the  ele- 
vator, and  sent  up  from  the  basement  to  the  upper  or 
seventh  story  by  steam  power,  the  mill  being  seven 
stories  high. 

"  The  first  process  is  sorting  and  cleaning  the  wheat. 
Any  bits  of  iron,  nails,  straw,  or  bits  of  wood,  are 
thrown  out  as  it  passes  through  the  cleansing-machines. 
Seeds  of  weeds,  such  as  cockle  {Lychnis  Githagd), 
grass  seeds,  and  the  shrivelled  grains  of  the  wheat 
itself,  are  all  separated  or  sifted  out.  The  wheat  is 
passed  between  brush  rollers,  and  all  dust  removed,  so 
that  a  handful  of  grain  examined  in  this  stage  shows 
plump,  even-sized  kernels,  which  seem  almost  polished, 
so  beautifully  clean  are  they. 

"  In  the  next  process,  the  grain  is  cracked  once 
longitudinally,  that  is,  in  a  line  with  the  groove ;  it  is 
then  crushed  again,  and  then  a  third  time.  This  third 
time  the  husk  lies  free  from  the  grain,  and  is  a  mere 
film  of  tissue. 

"  The  method  of  cracking  the  grain  is  comparatively 
new,  and  is  thought  to  take  all  the  wheat,  and  leave 
nothing  in  the  husk  as  a  rule.  Here  and  there  a  husk 
could  be  picked  out  with  an  atom  adherent,  but  rarely.. 

"The  wheat  is  now  bolted  through  coarse  sieves, 


82  FOOD  MATERIALS 

which  take  out  this  husk  or  bran,  and  leave  the  wheat 
like  a  meal,  called  'Middlings.'  This  is  very  sweet 
when  chewed  a  moment.  The  bran  is  run  down  into 
cars  and  sold  for  feeding  stock,  and  the  demand  is 
always  greater  than  the  supply. 

"The  middlings  are  now  ground  and  bolted  five 
times,  looking  very  much  like  flour  the  last  time. 
This  flour  is  now  bolted  through  fine  silk  sieves,  which 
are  cylinders  revolving  on  a  horizontal  axis.  On  open- 
ing the  boxes  to  look  in  on  these  sieves,  there  comes 
out  a  warm,  sweet  smell,  with  an  odor  like  that  of  new 
bread. 

"  Summary  of  Processes. 

"  First  of  all,  the  grain  is  cleaned  and  sorted. 

i.  The  grain  cracked  lengthwise. 

2.  The  grain  crushed. 

3.  Husk  now  loose,  with  the  kernel  crushed. 

4.  Bolted.     The  result,  Bran,  and  No.  1  Middlings. 

5.  Middlings  No.  2. 

6.  Middlings  No.  3,  finer  still. 

7.  Middlings  No.  4,  finer  still. 

8.  Middlings  No.  5,  finer  still. 

9.  Middlings  are  now  like  flour. 

10.  This  flour  is  ground  once  more  and  bolted. 


AND    THEIR  ADULTERATIONS.  83 

"  To  be  packed,  the  flour  comes  down  large  cylinders 
into  barrels  or  bags.  The  packing  is  all  automatic,  only 
one  man  being  required  at  a  machine.  But  there  are 
a  number  of  machines  in  operation  in  a  row,  on  each 
side  of  the  mill. 

"  When  filled,  the  barrel  or  bag  is  slipped  upon  the 
scales  and  weighed,  the  workman  adding  or  taking 
away  flour,  so  as  to  make  the  weight  (196  lbs.  to  a 
barrel)  exact.  Flour  for  shipping  abroad  is  usually 
put  into  sacks  or  bags  of  various  sizes,  as  it  is  more 
easily  handled  and  better  stowed  in  this  form. 

"  The  flour  from  summer  wheat  is  considered  the 
bes\  for  bread,  but  it  requires  more  kneading. 

"  Every  improvement  is  added  to  insure  safety  in  the 
mill,  \o  lighten  the  labor,  and  to  increase  the  amount 
and  quality  of  the  flour  produced.  Attached  to  the 
machinery  are  tubes,  which,  by  an  exhaust,  draw  away 
all  the  impalpable  dust  from  -  around  the  cylinders, 
and  also  take  it  from  the  air  of  the  room.  This  fine 
dust  becomes  inflammable  when  it  is  electrical,  and 
it  becomes  electrical  in  contact  with  the  revolving 
machinery.  The  great  explosion  at  one  of  the  Wash- 
burn mills  is  presumed  to  have  been  due  to  this  cause, 
and  the  spark  which  touched  it  off  a  bit  of  fine  iron 


34  FOOD  MATERIALS 

wire  in  the  wheat,  which  became  red-hot  passing 
through  the  rollers.  This  is  one  reason  also  for  the 
extreme  care  used  in  cleaning  the  wheat  before  grind- 
ing, lest  any  bit  of  iron  should  pass  through  the 
machinery. 

"  The  dust  drawn  from  the  air,  with  the  sweepings 
from  the  boxes  and  shafts,  is  saved  and  used  in  the 
inferior  grades  of  flour." 

The  adulteration  of  flour  is  probably  not  practised 
to  any  great  extent  in  this  land  of  cheap  wheat.  In 
books  relating  to  the  food  of  foreign  countries,  refer- 
ence is  always  made  to  the  admixture  of  the  inferior 
sorts  of  grain,  to  mineral  additions  for  increasing  the 
weight,  such  as  chalk  or  gypsum,  and  to  the  addition 
of  alum  or  copper  sulphate,  in  order  to  enable  the 
baker  to  make  whiter  bread  out  of  an  inferior  grade 
of  flour.  It  is  said  that  the  gluten  becomes  softer  and 
less  elastic  and  tenacious  when  the  flour  has  been 
over-heated  in  grinding,  or  if  the  heap  of  grain  has 
been  heated  or  fermented  before  grinding,  and  the 
like.  It  is  found  that  a  little  alum  added  to  the  flour 
seems  to  restore  the  tenacity  of  the  gluten,  and  render 
the  flour  capable  of  making  better  and  whiter  bread. 

Microscopic  examination   will  serve  to    detect  the 


AND    THEIR  ADULTERATIONS.  85 

first  class  of  adulteration,  the  amount  of  ash  (which 
should  not  exceed  one  per  cent)  will  indicate  the 
second,  and  a  careful  chemical  analysis  will  show 
the  third.  It  must  be  remembered,  however,  that  the 
husk  of  the  kernel  contains  some  alumina,  so  that  a 
trace  may  always  be  found  in  the  ash.  If  the  flour 
contains  any  considerable  quantity  of  alum,  it  will  turn 
blue  when  moistened  with  a  solution  of  legwood. 

The  proportion  of  gluten  is  of  great  importance,  if 
the  flour  is  to  make  up  a  large  portion  of  the  diet  of  a 
family.  The  following  method  of  determining  it  is 
given  by  Dietzsch  (p.  173).  A  portion  of  flour  weigh- 
ing one  hundred  grams  is  made  up  to  a  stiff  paste  with 
forty  to  fifty  grams  of  water,  allowed  to  stand  half  an 
hour,  placed  in  a  cloth,  and  kneaded  under  a  stream 
of  running  water  until  the  water  no  longer  comes 
through  milky.  The  yellowish  elastic  residue  should 
weigh,  when  moist,  from  thirty  to  thirty-five  grams ; 
when  dry,  fifteen  to  eighteen  grams.  If  the  paste 
stands  three  hours  instead  of  half  an  hour,  the  residue 
is  said  to  be  some  three  per  cent  more. 

The  testing  of  flour  in  the  barrel  is,  like  tea-tasting, 
an  acquired  art.  Only  long  practice  can  enable  one 
to  judge  with  certainty  of  the  quality  of  flour  by  its 


86  FOOD  MATERIALS 

shade  of  yellow,  or  its  mode  of  caking  when  pressed, 
etc.  The  importance  of  good  flour  can  hardly  be 
over-estimated,  since  upon  good  bread  depends  the 
health  of  the  greater  part  of  the  human  race  in  all 
temperate  climates. 

BUCKWHEAT. 

Buckwheat  does  not  belong  to  the  grasses  or  ce- 
reals, but  to  the  family  Polygonaceae,  which  includes 
rhubarb  and  dock.  It  grows  as  far  north  as  720, 
and  thus  stands  next  to  barley.  It  matures  very 
quickly,  —  in  one  hundred  days,  —  and  thrives  on 
sandy  soil.  It  is  probably  a  native  of  Western  Asia, 
and  is  largely  grown  in  temperate  countries.  The 
seed,  when  stripped  of  its  indigestible  husk,  which 
composes  about  twenty  per  cent  of  it,  is  rich  in  food 
material. 

STARCHES,   ETC. 

The  prepared  starches  are  purified,  so  that  they 
contain  little  else  than  pure  starch,  and  thus  are  not 
capable  of  sustaining  life  by  themselves.  Starch  may 
be  derived  from  the  cereal  grains  mentioned  above, 
or  from  tubers  or  roots,  as  the  potato,  arrowroot,  and 


AND    THEIR  ADULTERATIONS.  87 

manihot  or  yucca,  which  yields  farina  and  tapioca,  and 
from  the  stems  of  plants,  as  the  sago  palm. 

Corn  starch  is  much  used  in  the  United  States  as  an 
article  of  diet.  Farina  is  another  name  for  a  prepara- 
tion from  the  starch  of  maize  or  wheat,  which  now 
takes  the  place  of  the  farina  of  manihot. 

Genuine  macaroni  and  vermicelli  are  made  from 
wheat  rich  in  gluten,  and  hence  are  exceedingly  nutri- 
tious. Imitations  are  made  from  flour  colored  with 
saffron,  or  other  yellow  coloring-matter. 

Arrowroot  is  derived  from  plants  of  the  genus 
Maranta,  of  the  West  India  Islands  and  tropical 
America,  the  chief  species  being  M.  arundinacea. 
The  earliest  recorded  notice  of  the  plant,  the  knowl- 
edge of  which  was  obtained  from  South  American 
Indians,  refers  to  the  supposed  virtue  possessed  by 
its  roots  as  an  antidote  to  poisoned  arrows;  and 
it  probably  derives  its  name  from  this.  Arrowroot 
was  introduced  into  England  about  the  beginning  of 
this  century ;  but  its  use  has  been  largely  superseded 
by  that  of  corn  starch. 


IV. 


MILK,    BUTTER,    CHEESE. 

MILK. 

r  I  "'HE  milk  of  animals  has  been  used  as  human  food 
from  time  immemorial.  In  early  ages  it  was  the 
milk  of  goats,  asses,  etc.,  which  was  common ;  now 
however,  cow's  milk  is  used  all  over  the  world. 

Milk  is  often  called  the  perfect  food,  since  it  con- 
tains all  the  elements  necessary  for  nutrition,  and  in 
the  right  proportions.  One  of  the  greatest  advances 
in  modern  medicine,  as  well  as  in  wholesome  living,  is 
the  recognition  of  milk  as  an  article  of  diet,  especially 
for  invalids,  young  people,  and  fever  patients.  Most 
persons  can  digest  it  when  a  little  lime  water  is  added, 
if  it  does  not  suit  them  without  it.  It  is  essential,  how- 
ever, that  the  milk  supplied  be  of  good  quality,  and 
from  healthy,  well-fed  animals. 

Public  attention  is  now  being  called  to  the  quality 
of  milk  purchased,  and  it  is  to  be  hoped   that  vigi- 


FOOD  MATERIALS.  89 

lance  will  not  be  relaxed,  although  the  question  of 
the  purity  of  milk  is  one  of  the  most  difficult  with 
which  the  analyst  has  to  deal,  since  genuine  milk  varies 
widely  in  composition,  owing  to  the  breed  of  the  cows 
and  the  feeding  and  care  which  they  receive.  The 
two  determinations  upon  which  chemists  chiefly  rely 
are  the  percentage  of  fats  (butter)  and  of  the  solids 
not  fats.  But  the  range  of  these  in  pure  milk  is  wide ; 
late  investigations  give  the  maximum  and  minimum  as 
follows.  Solids  not  fats,  from  11.27  Per  cent  down  to 
8  per  cent ;  so  that  the  analyst  must  require,  as  a  rule, 
over  8.5  per  cent.  For  the  butter  fats  the  highest 
amount  given  is  6.87  per  cent,  the  lowest  1.92  per  cent, 
but  the  requirement  for  good  milk  cannot  well  go  above 
2.4  per  cent.  Accurate  analysis  demands  so  much  skill 
and  practice  that  expert  chemists  only  are,  as  a  rule, 
competent  to  give  an  opinion  on  the  quality  of  milk. 
The  various  instruments  proposed,  such  as  lactometers 
and  lactoscopes,  cannot  be  relied  upon,  especially  in 
inexperienced  hands. 

The  most  frequent  adulteration  is  water ;  coloring- 
matters  are  then  added  to  give  the  requisite  yellow- 
ness. Greater  danger  to  health  comes  from  the  use  of 
milk  from  diseased  or  improperly  fed  cows,  than  from 


QO  FOOD  MATERIALS 

any  substances  added  to  the  milk,  unless  the  water 
used  is  taken  from  a  foul  well.  The  fact  that  milk  is 
so  largely  used  by  children  and  people  in  delicate 
health  renders  it  indispensable  that  the  quality  of  the 
milk  should  be  of  the  very  best.  The  moral  sense 
of  the  community  should  demand  this.  Milk  is  very 
liable  to  undergo  the  so-called  lactic  fermentation,  in 
which  the  sugar  is  changed  to  lactic  acid ;  hence,  the 
greatest  precautions  should  be  taken  as  to  cleanliness 
of  the  vessels  into  which  the  liquid  is  poured. 

The  composition  of  milk  may  be  roughly  stated  as 
follows  :  water,  86  per  cent ;  lactose,  or  milk  sugar, 
5.5  percent;  milk  fat,  4  per  cent;  caseine,  or  curd, 
4  per  cent ;  saline  matter,  5  per  cent.  The  fat  is  held 
in  suspension  in  the  liquid  in  the  form  of  globules,  of 
which  it  is  estimated  that  there  are  about  three  and 
a  half  millions  in  every  cubic  millimeter. 

CONDENSED   MILK. 

The  extremely  unstable  character  of  milk,  and  the 
consequent  difficulty  of  transportation  and  preserva- 
tion for  any  length  of  time,  have  led  to  the  adoption  of 
various  processes  for  concentrating  the  valuable  con- 


AND    THEIR   ADULTERATIONS.  gX 

stituents,  which  are  only  about  fourteen  per  cent  of  the 
weight,  into  a  smaller  bulk  and  more  stable  condition. 
The  usual  process  consists  in  simple  concentration. 
The  milk  is  evaporated  in  vacuum  pans,  and  toward 
the  end  heated  to  ioo°  C,  in  order  to  destroy  any 
germs  of  mould.  It  is  put  up  in  tin  cans,  sealed 
hermetically,  and  may  then  be  kept  any  length  of 
time.  .Sometimes  a  little  sugar  is  added.  In  either 
case,  the  product  is  sold  as  condensed  milk,  which 
often  contains  about  one  third  as  much  water  as  the 
original  liquid. 

CREAM. 

When  milk  is  allowed^)  stand  at  rest  for  some 
hours,  the  fat  globules  rise  to  the  top,  forming  a  layer 
from  one  tenth  to  one  fifth  of  the  total  thickness.  This 
layer,  rich  in  fat,  is  called  cream,  and  contains  from 
twenty  to  forty  per  cent  of  fat. 

BUTTER. 

When  cream  or  milk  is  agitated  for  some  time 
(churned),  the  fat  globules  are  collected  into  a  more 
or  less  compact  mass,  called  butter. 


92  FOOD  MATERIALS 

Butter  is  a  very  important  article  of  diet,  especially 
in  English-speaking  countries.  It  is  of  all  animal  fats 
the  favorite,  not  only  on  account  of  its  pleasant  taste, 
but  because  it  is  the  most  easily  digested. 

Herodotus,  in  his  account  of  the  Scythians,  makes 
an  obscure  mention  of  butter,  and  this  is  the  earliest 
reference  known.  Dioscorides  is  the  first  to  observe 
that,  when  melted  and  poured  over  vegetables,  it 
serves  the  same  purpose  as  oil,  and  that  it  can  be 
used  in  pastry.  It  is  not  mentioned  by  Galen,  or  other 
writers  of  his  time,  as  food,  and  indeed  to  this  day  it  is 
little  used  in  Southern  countries,  so  that  it  might  almost 
be  said  to  be  a  product  of  Northern  civilization  in  its 
present  uses.  There  is  undoubted  evidence  that  butter 
was  well  known  to  the  Anglo-Saxons,  and  used  for 
salves  and  medicines. 

Butter  is  prepared  by  separating  the  fats  from  the 
water  and  curd  of  milk  by  agitation,  which  causes  the 
lighter  particles  of  fat  to  rise  to  the  top,  which  then  are 
collected  and  worked  into  a  homogeneous  mass.  This 
process  seems  to  be  very  successfully  accomplished  at 
present  by  the  centrifugal  machine. 

Good  butter  consists  of  fats,  water,  and  curd.  The 
water  varies  from  eight  to  sixteen  per  cent.     Over  six- 


AND    THEIR  ADULTERATIONS.  93 

teen  per  cent  is  injurious  to  the  keeping  of  butter. 
There  should  not  be  over  one  per  cent  of  curd  left, 
because  it  tends  to  grow  rancid  and  mould,  thus 
tainting  the  butter. 

Butter  is  very  sensitive  to  unpleasant  odors,  and 
must  be  kept  with  great  care,  in  closed  vessels,  even  a 
few  hours'  exposure  to  ordinary  air  injuring  the  deli- 
cate flavor.  It  would  be  well  if  all  girls  could  serve 
an  apprenticeship  in  a  good  dairy  for  a  few  weeks,  in 
order  to  learn  cleanliness.  Most  of  the  best  butter  is 
now  made  in  large  dairies  or  factories,  where,  owing  to 
the  amount  of  property  at  stake,  the  most  scrupulous 
cleanliness  is  enforced. 

The  seventy-eight  to  ninety  per  cent  of  butter  fats 
are  for  the  most  part  identical  with  those  in  olive  and 
palm  oils,  and  in  other  animal  fats ;  but  the  peculiar 
flavor  of  butter  is  due  to  the  presence  of  five  to  eight 
per  cent  of  butyric,  capronic,  caprylic,  and  caprinic 
acids.  These  fatty  acids  are  much  less  stable  than 
oleic,  palmitic,  and  stearic  acids,  which  are  often  called 
the  fixed  fatty  acids.  In  butter,  human  fat,  and  goose 
fat,  palmitic  acid  is  the  most  abundant.  \\  is  so  named 
from  its  occurrence  in  palm  oil.  Oleic  acid  is  com- 
mon to  these  fats,  and  to  beef,  mutton,  and  hog  fats. 


94  FOOD  MATERIALS 

Stearic  acid  is  found  in  small  quantities  in  butter,  while 
it  is  a  chief  and  constant  constituent  of  beef  tallow. 

During  the  Franco-German  war,  in  1870-71,  a 
French  chemist,  M£ge-Mouries,  invented  a  process 
for  obtaining  from  other  animal  fats  the  fatty  acids 
common  to  them  and  to  butter,  and  making  from  them 
a  very  fair  artificial  butter,  for  the  use  of  the  French 
army.  The  process  has  been  further  perfected  by 
working  the  product  with  milk,  sometimes  with  the 
addition  of  a  little  of  the  coloring-matter  of  butter 
and  of  a  little  butyric  ether,  so  that  neither  in  con- 
sistency nor  in  flavor  is  the  artificial  to  be  clearly 
distinguished  from  the  real  butter.  This  product,  if 
well  made,  will  keep  longer  than  butter,  and  for  many 
uses,  such  as  cooking,  is  a  valuable  addition  to  the  food 
materials  of  the  world ;  but  unfortunately  it  is  not  al- 
ways sold  under  its  own  name,  partly  because  the 
public  is  slow  to  accept  a  new  article.  People  justly 
complain  when  they  get  oleomargarine  instead  of  the 
more  valuable  butter  which  they  pay  for.  It  is  a  fraud 
upon  their  pockets,  though  not  injurious  to  health. 

There  is  probably  no  serious  cause  for  alarm  as  to 
the  quality  of  the  fats  used  in  making  artificial  butter, 
for  the  financial  success  of  a  large  manufactory  will  be 


AND    THEIR  ADULTERATIONS.  95 

secured  only  by  the  good  quality  of  the  product.  The 
name  oleomargarine  is  derived  from  the  fatty  acids 
present,  —  oleic  and  margaric,  as  the  mixture  of  stearic 
and  palmitic  acids  was  formerly  called.  Rarely  has 
there  been  a  fraud  so  difficult  to  detect,  since  not  only 
the  apparent  but  the  real  differences  between  genuine 
and  artificial  butter  are  but  slight.  Yet  careful  chem- 
ical analysis  will  show  about  eighty-seven  per  cent  of 
fixed  fatty  acids  in  butter,  and  about  ninety-five  per 
cent  in  the  fats  used  in  making  artificial  butter. 

Reichert's  process  of  determining  the  volatile  acids 
peculiar  to  butter  answers  well  in  skilled  hands.  An 
analytical  chemist  has  little  difficulty  in  deciding  upon 
the  quality  of  a  suspected  sample.  The  expense  at- 
tending such  an  examination,  however,  prevents  its 
application  as  often  as  is  desirable.  The  detection  of 
the  crystals  of  the  different  fats,  as  proposed  by  Taylor, 
may  be  an  important  aid.  Some  simple  and  easily 
applied  test  is  much  to  be  desired,  but  the  public  yet 
waits  its  discovery. 

CHEESE. 

Good  cheese  is  composed  of  the  total  solids  of  milk 
curdled  by  rennet  before  the  milk  sours.     Poor  cheese 


96  FOOD  MATERIALS. 

is  made  from  skimmed  milk  and  hence  has  less  fat. 
Cheese  is  really  a  condensed  milk,  and  is  a  valuable 
article  of  diet,  replacing  meat  to  a  great  extent  with 
those  whose  stomachs  it  suits.  One  pound  of  cheese 
is  estimated  to  contain  as  much  nitrogenous  substance 
as  a  pound  or  a  pound  and  a  half  of  beef.  It  has  been 
very  free  from  adulteration,  but  now  oleomargarine  and 
lard  cheeses  are  reported  as  coming  into  market.  The 
rind  of  the  cheese  may  be  brushed  over  with  some 
metallic  salt  to  preserve  it  from  the  attacks  of  fungi, 
etc.,  so  that  it  is  well  to  pare  it  off  before  eating. 


V. 


SUGAR. 

'  I  ^HE  word  sugar,  probably  of  Sanscrit  origin,  is 
now  used  to  designate  a  class  of  substances 
possessing  a  sweet  taste,  and  capable  of  breaking  up 
into  alcohol  and  carbon  dioxide  under  the  influence 
of  ferments,  such  as  yeast. 

Of  the  various  kinds  of  sugar  known  to  chemists, 
only  two  or  three  are  of  importance  in  domestic 
economy ;  namely,  cane  sugar,  and  grape  sugar,  or 
glucose,  as  it  is  often  called. 

Common  sugar  is  called  cane  sugar,  because  it  is 
obtained  principally  from  the  sugar  cane,  a  tall  grass, 
Saccharum  officinarum,  a  native  of  Southern  Asia.  It 
is  the  sweetest  of  all  the  sugars,  and  is  technically  called 
sucrose.  It  has  been  known  from  the  earliest  historic 
times.  Some  early  writers  spoke  of  it  as  "  honey  made 
from  reeds  without  bees." 

According  to  Albertus  Agnensis,  as  stated  by  Mus- 
pratt,  in  the  time  of  the  Crusades  sweet  honeyed  canes 
7 


98  FOOD  MATERIALS 

were  found  in  great  quantity  in  the  meadows  near 
Tripoli  in  Syria,  which  reeds  were  called  zucra.  The 
plant  was  cultivated,  and  when  ripe  it  was  bruised  in 
mortars,  the  strained  juice  set  by  in  vessels  "  till  con- 
creted in  the  form  of  snow,  or  white  salt ;  this  when 
scraped  they  mix  with  bread,  or  rub  it  in  water  and 
take  it  as  pottage,  and  it  is  to  them  more  wholesome 
and  pleasing  than  the  honey  of  bees." 

In  Europe  it  was  used  only  in  medicine  until  about 
the  fifteenth  century,  and  it  was  not  produced  in  large 
quantities  till  about  1800. 

The  sucrose  of  commerce  is  also  obtained  from  the 
beet,  the  palm,  and  the  maple  tree,  and  from  another 
grass,  Sorghum  saccharatum.  The  process  of  manu- 
facture is  essentially  the  same  in  all  cases,  and  only 
that  of  cane  sugar  will  be  referred  to. 

The  sugar  cane  contains  about  eighteen  per  cent  of 
sugar;  but  since  about  four  per  cent  remains  in  the 
refuse  from  pressing,  and  some  is  lost  by  skimming 
during  the  boiling,  and  two  or  three  per  cent  goes  into 
the  molasses  which  is  the  result  of  the  boiling,  there 
remains  only  from  eight  to  twelve  per  cent  of  sugar 
which  is  recovered.  The  canes  are  crushed  and 
passed  through  powerful  presses.     The  juice  is  boiled 


AND    THEIR  ADULTERATIONS.  gg 

with  a  little  milk  of  lime,  added  to  neutralize  the 
acids  which  the  juice  contains  :  this  forms  a  scum, 
which  is  taken  off.  After  the  boiling  in  vacuum  pans 
has  concentrated  the  juice  sufficiently,  it  is  run  into 
a  large  vessel  to  crystallize. 

The  mass  of  crystals  formed  is  drained  from  the 
syrup,  and  is  known  as  raw  or  muscovado  sugar.  The 
non-crystallized  portion  is  known  as  molasses.  The  old 
West  India  or  New  Orleans  molasses,  which  made  such 
good  gingerbread,  was  of  this  type,  and  was  somewhat 
acid,  owing  to  the  presence  of  acetic  and  formic  acids. 

The  raw  sugar  is  sent  to  the  refineries  to  be  made 
into  the  pure  white  sugar  known  as  loaf,  granulated, 
or  powdered.  The  raw  sugar  is  dissolved  and  boiled 
with  the  white  of  egg,  or  with  the  serum  of  blood ; 
formerly  a  small  quantity  of  chemicals,  as  tin  salts, 
was  sometimes  used,  but  metallic  salts  are  not  now 
employed  for  this  purpose.  This  boiling  separates  all 
the  remaining  gum,  albumen,  etc.,  and,  after  filtering, 
the  juice  is  clear.  The  final  filtering  is  through  bone- 
black,  in  order  to  take  out  the  color.  The  juice  is  now 
colorless,  and  after  boiling  in  vacuum  pans  is  allowed 
to  cool  and  crystallize.  Some  sugar  is  rendered  non- 
crystallizable  by  this  last  boiling,  and  this   is   known 


IOo  FOOD  MATERIALS 

as  syrup.  The  golden  syrup  among  others  should 
be  from  this  product ;  in  England  the  crude  syrup  is 
called  treacle.  With  the  improved  processes  of  boiling 
in  vacuum  pans  the  old  molasses  has  almost  disap- 
peared, and  syrups  have  become  more  costly.  Much 
of  the  old  time  molasses  went  to  the  distilleries,  to 
be  made  into  rum.  The  grades  of  sugar  have  also 
changed  very  much.  The  dark  brown  sugars  have 
almost  disappeared  from  the  market.  This  is  owing 
to  the  improved  methods  of  boiling.  The  granulated 
is  of  the  same  quality  as  loaf  sugar,  only  the  syrup 
is  stirred  while  crystallizing,  so  that  the  crystals  do  not 
cohere.  The  light  brown  sugars  are  the  next  product, 
containing  some  molasses,  and  therefore  they  taste 
sweeter,  since  the  flavor  is  more  pronounced  in  the 
colored  portion  of  the  juice. 

If  the  granulated  sugar  is  not  quite  freed  from  the 
syrup,  it  tastes  more  decidedly  sweet  than  if  it  is  per- 
fectly pure.  That  is,  it  has  more  the  taste  which  we 
are  accustomed  to  associate  with  sugar. 

It  is  often  said  that  powdered  sugar  must  be 
adulterated,  because  it  does  not  sweeten  as  much  as 
loaf  sugar;  but  such  is  not  the  case,  and  some  ex- 
planation must  be  sought.     The  reason  seems  to  be 


AND    THEIR  ADULTERATIONS.  101 

twofold  :  first,  a  spoonful  of  powdered  sugar  does  not 
weigh  as  much  as  a  spoonful  of  granulated ;  secondly, 
since  sweetness  is  a  physical  property,  the  finely  di- 
vided condition  of  the  sugar  has  something  to  do  with 
it.  The  coarser  grains  seem  to  excite  in  the  nerves  of 
taste  a  stronger  vibration,  so  to  speak,  in  dissolving, 
than  do  the  fine  particles.  To  prove  this,  equal 
weights  of  loaf,  of  granulated  of  different  degrees  of 
fineness,  of  powdered,  and  of  coffee-crushed  sugar, 
were  dissolved  in  equal  volumes  of  water,  and  then 
tested  by  various  persons,  the  tumblers  containing  the 
solutions  being  numbered  so  that  the  taster  was  an  un- 
biased judge.  Some  pure  honey  was  added  to  the  list, 
and  the  results  confirmed  the  previous  suspicions  that 
the  taste  was  not  due  to  the  chemical  purity  of  the 
substance.  In  every  case  the  coffee  sugar  was*  pro- 
nounced the  sweetest,  and  that  of  the  solution  of 
honey  the  least  sweet.  As  to  the  solutions  of  the  other 
sugars,  which  were  all  pure  sucrose,  judgments  varied, 
showing  that  the  sensation  .of  sweetness  is  not  owing 
solely  to  the  presence  of  a  certain  amount  of  sucrose. 
That  beet  root  contained  a  sugar  identical  with  that 
obtained  from  the  sugar  cane  was  first  made  known  by 
Margraf,  in  1747.     But  the  beet  was  not  cultivated  for 


I02  FOOD  MATERIALS 

the  purpose  to  any  extent  until  the  middle  of  this 
century.  Under  the  protection  of  Napoleon  I.,  the 
industry  gradually  gained  ground.  A  prize  of  a  million 
francs  was  offered  for  the  successful  manufacture  of 
sugar  from  plants  of  home  growth.  As  late  as  i860 
the  fate  of  beet  sugar  was  doubtful,  since  the  disagree- 
able flavor  of  the  molasses  still  clung  to  the  crystallized 
sugar.  But  applied  science  has  overcome  all  the  diffi- 
culties, and  the  purest  loaf  sugar  is  now  made  from 
beets.  About  one  third  of  the  total  sugar  product  is 
beet-root  sugar.  In  1858,  the  amount  of  beet  sugar 
produced  was  estimated  at  159,821  tons;  in  1878,  at 
1,420,800  tons  for  Europe  alone.  The  culture  of  the 
beet  has  spread  throughout  Germany  and  Russia.  It 
has  been  tried  in  England,  Ireland,  and  the  Northern 
United  States ;  and  it  doubtless  will  prove  a  source  of 
profit  in  many  latitudes  where  the  sugar  cane  will  not 
thrive.  Beets  contain  up  to  ten  or  twelve  per  cent  of 
sugar.  In  Belgium  and  France  they  extract  about 
seven  per  cent,  and  in  Germany  eight  or  nine  per  cent. 
The  process  of  manufacture  differs  little  from  that  of 
cane  sugar.  The  molasses  from  beet  sugar  is  mostly 
sent  to  the  distillery,  as  there  is  a  very  disagreeable 
taste  to  it. 


AND   THEIR  ADULTERATIONS.  103 

In  parts  of  the  United  States  and  in  Canada  sugar 
is  made  from  the  sap  of  the  maple,  Acer  sacc/iarmum, 
and  other  allied  species.  The  sugar  is  cane  sugar,  or 
sucrose,  and  the  accompanying  substances  in  the  sap 
give  an  agreeable  flavor  quite  peculiar  to  maple  sugar. 
Several  million  pounds  are  annually  produced. 

The  cultivation  of  the  Chinese  sugar  grass,  or  sugar 
millet,  {Sorghum  saccharatum,)  has  been  recently  at- 
tempted in  the  United  States,  with  some  success.  It 
seems  to  be  suited  to  a  warm  temperate  zone,  and  thus 
is  intermediate  between  the  Northern  maple  and  beet 
and  the  tropical  sugar  cane. 

Grape  sugar  (so  called  from  its  abundance  in  that 
fruit,  some  ten  to  fifteen  per  cent)  is  found  in  a  great 
variety  of  fruits.  Apples  contain  eight  per  cent,  straw- 
berries five  or  six  per  cent,  cranberries  and  gooseberries 
seven  per  cent,  blackberries  and  raspberries  four  per 
cent,  peaches  and  plums  one  to  two  per  cent.  It  is 
present  in  the  sacs  of  flowers  and  is  the  source  of  honey. 
It  can  be  readily  obtained  from  grapes  by  expressing  the 
juice,  and,  after  neutralization  of  the  acids,  the  syrup  may 
be  refined  and  crystallized  as  in  the  case  of  beet  sugar, 
but  it  crystallizes  with  difficulty  and  is  apt  to  take  on 
water  and  become  moist.     It  is  accompanied  by  a  non- 


I04  FOOD  MATERIALS 

crystallizable  sugar  called  levulose.  Grape  sugar  made 
from  grapes  is  too  costly  for  ordinary  use.  Two  pro- 
cesses for  its  cheap  production  are  employed,  but  for 
the  understanding  of  these  a  short  statement  of  the 
changes  which  cane  sugar  may  undergo  will  be  neces- 
sary. Sucrose  (CjjHjjOu),  when  boiled  for  a  length  of 
time  in  contact  with  air,  and  especially  if  acid  be  pres- 
ent, becomes  changed  into  invert  sugar,  as  it  is  called, 
from  its  behavior  when  a  beam  of  polarized  light  is 
passed  through  it.  This  invert  sugar  can  be  separated 
into  two  kinds :  dextrose  (CGH]2G\),  a  crystallizable 
sugar  turning  the  ray  of  polarized  light  to  the  right, 
identical  with  the  grape  sugar  obtained  from  grapes ; 
and  a  non-crystallizable  sugar  which  turns  the  ray  of 
polarized  light  to  the  left,  and  which  from  this  property 
is  called  levulose,  or  fruit  sugar  (CcH12O0).  Thus  its 
chemical  composition  is  identical  with  dextrose.  Both 
kinds  are  often  called  glucose,  meaning  sweet,  from  the 
Greek  glukus.  In  jellies  and  preserved  fruits,  a  large 
portion  of  the  cane  sugar  or  sucrose  is  changed  into 
glucose  during  the  heating  with  the  acid  juice  of  the 
fruit,  and,  as  was  noticed,  molasses  is  chiefly  the  in- 
vert sugar  caused  by  boiling  the  acid  juice  of  the 
sugar  cane.     But  not  only  may  sucrose  be  converted 


AND    THEIR  ADULTERATIONS.  105 

into  glucose,  but  all  forms  of  starch  (CcH10O5)  may,  by 
the  action  of  two  kinds  of  agents,  be  changed  into  glu- 
cose (C6HI206).  One  of  these  agents  is  the  diastase 
or  starch  converter,  a  ferment  found  in  sprouting  grain. 
By  this  means  beer,  bread,  etc.  are  made.  The  sugar 
thus  formed  is  called  maltose.  It  is  an  intermediate 
sugar,  having  the  composition  of  cane  sugar,  but  it  re- 
duces copper  sulphate,  which  cane  sugar  does  not. 
This  process  is  not  available  for  obtaining  clean  sugar, 
since  the  various  other  ingredients  of  the  potato  or 
grain  used  are  in  the  mash ;  also  a  portion  of  the  sugar 
will  be  lost  by  the  further  change  into  alcohol ;  hence, 
for  the  manufacture  of  commercial  glucose,  the  starch 
is  usually  obtained  first,  and  afterward  boiled  with  very 
dilute  sulphuric  acid  for  some  hours.  An  intermediate 
product,  dextrine,  is  first  formed,  and  when  this  nearly 
disappears  the  process  is  finished.  The  boiling  is  clone 
in  iron  or  wooden  pans.  The  acid  is  then  neutralized 
with  lime  or  baryta  in  slight  excess.  If  lime  is  used,  a 
little  of  the  sulphate,  being  slightly  soluble  in  water, 
will  be  found  in  the  syrup  or  sugar.  Hence  the  stories 
of  free  sulphuric  acid  in  glucose.  The  concentration 
and  refining  are  then  conducted  as  for  cane  sugar. 
A  bushel  of  corn  will  give  thirty-two  pounds  of  glu- 


106  FOOD  MATERIALS. 

cose.     Twenty  establishments  in  the  United  States  can 
make  609,000,000  pounds  annually. 

All  woody  fibre  or  cellulose  (CcH10O-)  can  be  acted 
upon  by  acids  so  as  to  form  glucose ;  hence  any 
woody  substance,  as  sawdust,  cotton,  etc.,  can  be  con- 
verted, by  the  addition  of  molecules  of  water,  into 
glucose  j  but  this  is  not  done  for  the  purpose  of  sugar 
manufacture,  corn  meal  being  much  more  available. 
For  spirits  it  has  probably  been  done.  The  proper 
name  of  glucose  should  be  starch  sugar. 

Properties  of  Glucose. 

Glucose  is  one  and  a  half  times  less  soluble  than 
sucrose,  or  it  requires  one  and  a  third  times  its 
weight  of  cold  water  to  dissolve  it.  It  requires  two 
and  a  half  times  more  of  grape  sugar  to  sweeten  the 
same  volume  of  water  than  it  does  of  cane  sugar; 
hence,  while  it  is  cheaper,  it  is  not  as  valuable,  pound 
for  pound. 

Glucose  as  it  is  usually  sold  contains  about  twenty 
per  cent  of  water  and  about  twenty  per  cent  of  unfer- 
mentable  substances,  leaving  only  some  sixty  per  cent 
of  sugar,  the  sugar  sometimes  runs  as  high  as  seventy- 
five  per  cent.     The  syrups  contain  from  thirty  to  forty 


AND    THEIR  ADULTERATIONS.  10>j 

per  cent  of  sugar.  Honey  is  essentially  glucose,  or 
dextrose,  with  perhaps  some  levulose,  and  something 
not  sugar,  to  which  no  name  has  yet  been  given.  The 
proportion  of  non-fermentable  substances  varies  accord- 
ing to  the  source  of  the  honey.  Sometimes  as  much 
as  fifteen  per  cent  is  found. 

The  following  is  a  summary  of  the  report  on  glucose 
made  by  the  Committee  of  the  National  Academy  of 
Sciences  to  the  Commissioner  of  Internal  Revenue,  in 
1884  :  — 

"  1.  Starch  sugar  as  found  in  commerce  is  a  mixture 
in  varying  proportions  of  two  sugars  called  dextrose 
and  maltose,  and  of  dextrine  or  starch  gum.  Dextrose 
was  discovered  in  grapes  by  Lowitz  in  1792,  and  was 
first  prepared  from  starch  by  Kirchhoff  in  18 n.  In 
181 9,  Braconnot  prepared  it  from  woody  fibre.  Mal- 
tose was  first  recognized  as  a  distinct  sugar  by  Dubrem- 
fant  in  1847,  in  the  product  of  the  action  of  malt  on 
starch.  No  dextrose  is  thus  produced,  according  to 
O'Sullivan. 

"  2.  The  process  of  making  starch  sugar  consists, 
first,  in  separating  the  starch  from  the  corn  by  soaking, 
grinding,  straining,  and  settling ;  and  second  in  con- 
verting the  starch  into  sugar  by  the  action  of  dilute 


io8  FOOD  MATERIALS 

sulphuric  acid,  this  acid  being  subsequently  removed 
by  the  action  of  chalk.  To  make  the  solid  'grape 
sugar'  the  conversion  is  carried  further  than  to  make 
liquid  'glucose.'  After  clarifying,  the  liquid  is  con- 
centrated in  vacuum  pans  and  is  decolorized  with 
bone-black. 

"  3.  The  starch  sugar  industry  in  the  United  States 
gives  employment  to  twenty-nine  factories,  having 
an  estimated  capital  of  $5,000,000,  consuming  about 
40,000  bushels  of  corn  per  day,  and  producing  grape 
sugar  and  glucose  to  the  annual  value  of  nearly 
$10,000,000.  In  Germany  in  1881-82  there  were 
thirty-nine  factories  of  this  sort,  consuming  over 
70,000  tons  of  starch,  and  producing  about  40,000 
tons  of  starch  sugar. 

"4.  Starch  sugar  is  chiefly  used  in  making  table 
syrup,  in  brewing  beer  as  substitute  for  malt,  and  in 
adulterating  cane  sugar.  It  is  also  used  to  replace 
cane  sugar  in  confectionery,  in  canning  fruits,  in  mak- 
ing fruit  jellies,  and  in  cooking.  Artificial  honey  is 
made  with  it,  and  so  also  is  vinegar. 

"  5.  Starch  sugar  represents  one  distinct  class  of 
sugar,  as  cane  sugar  does  the  other,  the  former  being 
obtained  naturally  from  the  grape,  as  the  latter  is  from 


AND    THEIR  ADULTERATIONS.  IC>9 

the  cane  and  the  beet.  Starch  sugar,  which  is  a  term 
chemically  synonymous  with  dextrose  and  glucose, 
when  pure,  has  about  two  thirds  the  sweetening  power 
of  sugar  cane.  By  the  action  of  the  dilute  acids  both 
cane  sugar  and  starch  yield  dextrose.  In  the  case 
of  starch,  however,  dextrose  constitutes  the  sole  final 
product. 

"  6.  The  commercial  samples  of  starch  sugar  ob- 
tained by  the  committee  showed  a  fairly  uniform  com- 
position on  analysis.  The  liquid  form,  or  'glucose,' 
contained  from  34.3  to  42.8  per  cent  of  dextrose, 
from  o  to  19.3  per  cent  of  maltose,  from  29.8  to 
45.3  per  cent  of  dextrine,  and  from  14.2  to  22.6 
per  cent  of  water.  The  solid  form,  grape  sugar,  gave 
from  72  to  73.4  per  cent  of  dextrose,  from  o  to 
36  per  cent  of  maltose,  from  4.3  to  9.1  per  cent  of 
dextrine,  and  from  14  to  T7.6  per  cent  of  water. 
Three  specimens  of  especially  prepared  '  grape  sugar ' 
contained  87.1,  93.2,  and  99.4  per  cent  of  dextrose 
respectively.  The  last  of  these  was  crystalline  an- 
hydrous dextrose. 

"7.  Of  mineral  or  inorganic  constituents,  the  samples 
of  starch  sugar  examined  contained  only  minute  quan- 
tities.    The  total  ash  formed  in  the  '  glucose '  was  only 


HO  FOOD  MATERIALS 

from  0.325  to  1. 000  per  cent,  and  in  the  'grape  sugars  ' 
only  from  0.335  t0  °-75°  Per  cent.  No  impurities, 
either  organic  or  inorganic  in  character,  other  than 
those  mentioned,  were  detected  in  any  of  the  samples 
examined. 

"  In  conclusion,  then,  the  following  facts*  appear  as 
the  result  of  the  present  investigation  :  — 

"  (1.)  That  the  manufacture  of  sugar  from  starch  is 
a  long-established  industry,  scientifically  valuable  and 
commercially  important. 

"  (2.)  That  the  processes  which  it  employs  at  the 
present  time  are  unobjectionable  in  their  character, 
and  leave  the  product  uncontaminated. 

"  (3.)  That  starch  sugar  thus  made  and  sent  into 
commerce  is  of  exceptional  purity  and  uniformity  of 
composition,  and  contains  no  injurious  substances ; 
and, 

"  (4.)  That,  though  having  at  best  only  about  two 
thirds  the  sweetening  power  of  cane  sugar,  yet  starch 
sugar  is  in  no  way  inferior  to  cane  sugar  in  healthful- 
ness,  there  being  no  evidence  before  the  committee 
that  maize  starch  sugar,  either  in  its  normal  condition 
or  fermented,  has  any  deleterious  effect  upon  the  sys- 
tem, even  when  taken  in  large  quantities." 


AND    THEIR  ADULTERATIONS.  m 

The  report  is  signed  by  George  F.  Barker,  Chair- 
man, William  H.  Brewer,  Charles  F.  Chandler,  Wolcott 
Gibbs,  and  Ira  Remsen. 

Uses  of  Sugar. 

Taking  the  world  as  a  whole,  it  might  be  said  that 
sugar  was  used  as  a  condiment  rather  than  as  a  food, 
but  in  the  light  of  recent  statistics  it  seems  a  very 
important  article  of  diet,  and  should  be  so  considered. 
Its  use  seems  to  be  steadily  on  the  increase.  In 
Great  Britain  in  1700  the  total  yearly  consumption 
was  only  10,000  pounds.  In  1867  it  was  44.15 
pounds  per  head;  while  in  1876  it  had  reached  63 
pounds,  and  in  1884,  67  pounds.  An  estimate  from 
the  statistics  of  1867,  reckoned  by  races,  gave  the 
consumption  of  sugar  per  head  as  41.40  pounds  for 
the  Anglo-Saxon  races,  12.34  for  the  Latin,  7.30 
for  the  Teutonic,  and  3.30  for  Russia,  Turkey,  and 
Greece.  In  the  United  States  in  1875  **  was  44»  an(^ 
in  1884,  56  pounds  per  head.  At  the  present  rate  of 
increase  of  population,  the  United  States  will  in  1895 
consume  5,000,000,000  pounds  per  year.  It  would 
seem  that  in  the  North  it  is  taking  the  place  of  the 
oil  of  the  South  as  a  heat-giving  food.     The  growing 


II2  FOOD  MATERIALS 

opinion  seems  to  be  in  favor  of  its  moderate  use.  It 
is  true  that,  if  the  stomach  is  not  able  to  digest  it  at 
once,  it  is  liable  to  change  into  lactic  acid,  instead  of 
being  absorbed  into  the  system.  This  only  shows  that 
sugar  is  not  suitable  for  that  individual  at  that  time. 
The  very  general  craving  for  sweets  is  undoubtedly 
founded  on  a  law  of  demand  of  the  system.  Like  all 
other  foods,  sugar  may  be  abused.  That  it  plays  a 
part  as  a  heat-giving  food  is  indicated  by  the  fact  that 
it  is  not  craved  to  so  great  an  extent  in  summer  as  in 
winter.  Hence  a  moderate  use  of  it  by  children  is  not 
to  be  rashly  condemned. 

The  changes  which  sugar  undergoes  in  the  system 
are  not  fully  understood,  yet  it  is  pretty  certain  that 
cane  sugar,  sucrose,  is  not  absorbed  as  such,  but  is 
converted  into  glucose  before  it  is  assimilated.  With 
this  in  view,  it  seems  difficult  to  prove  the  oft-repeated 
assertion  of  the  opponents  of  artificial  sugar,  that  it  is 
injurious.  As  we  have  seen,  there  are  several  kinds 
of  sugar  included  under  the  general  term  of  glucose, 
and  just  what  the  physiological  properties  of  each  of 
these  kinds  are  we  do  not  yet  know ;  but  the  burden 
of  proof  lies  with  those  who  assert  the  unwholesome- 
ness  of  glucose.     It  has  never  been  supposed  that  the 


AND    THEIR  ADULTERATIONS. 


ll3 


sometimes  poisonous  properties  of  honey  were  due  to 
the  sugar,  but  to  the  pollen  or  other  matters  obtained 
from  the  flowers  by  the  bees. 

The  adulteration  of  sugar  may  be  considered  under 
three  heads.  First,  the  addition  of  insoluble  sub- 
stances, such  as  marble  dust,  which  is  sometimes 
found  advertised  among  the  supplies  of  confectioners. 
It  is  said  that  sand  used  to  be  added.  Second,  the 
foreign  substances  left  in  from  the  process  of  manu- 
facture, such  as  ultramarine  to  give  the  requisite  blue 
color.  If  tin  were  ever  found  in  sugar,  it  would  be 
in  this  list.  Third,  and  most  frequent  at  present, 
is  the  addition  of  glucose  or  corn  sugar,  which  is 
much  cheaper,  but  is  less  sweet,  partly  on  account 
of  its  lesser  solubility  in  water.  One  quart  of  water 
dissolves  three  pounds  of  cane  sugar,  but  only  one  or 
one  and  a  half  pounds  of  grape  sugar. 

Sugar  may  be  so  manipulated  in  refining  as  to  be 
white  and  crystalline,  and  yet  contain  quite  a  per- 
centage of  moisture  and  syrup.  Such  sugar  cakes 
together  on  standing.  The  presence  of  this  moisture 
may  be  regarded  as  an  adulteration. 

The  adulteration  of  the  granulated  and  powdered 
sugars,  at  least  those  sold  in  the  Eastern  States,  is  not 


II4  FOOD  MATERIALS 

as  extensive  as  has  been  supposed.  Of  the  samples 
examined  by  the  writer,  not  one  of  seventy-three  sam- 
ples from  Massachusetts,  not  one  of  five  from  New 
York,  and  only  one  of  twelve  from  Chicago,  was 
adulterated. 

The  Report  of  the  New  York  State  Board  of  Health 
of  1882  gives  one  hundred  and  sixteen  samples  ex- 
amined. In  no  case  was  there  any  intentional  addi- 
tion of  insoluble  mineral  matter.  Of  the  thirty-three 
powdered  sugars,  none  were  adulterated.  Of  the  sixty- 
seven  brown  sugars,  four  were  mixed  with  glucose. 

The  tests  are  not  very  difficult  as  to  the  presence  of 
foreign  matters,  since  they  are  insoluble  in  water,  and 
half  a  pound  of  sugar  dissolved  in  a  pint  of  water  will 
leave  a  sediment  if  marble  or  sand  has  been  added. 
Tin  would  be  detected  best  by  the  battery,  a  plate  of 
copper  being  used  as  a  cathode,  on  which  tin  shows 
very  quickly.  The  use  of  sulphuretted  hydrogen  is  not 
to  be  relied  upon,  since  on  heating  there  seems  to  be 
formed  an  organic  compound  of  the  color  of  tin  sul- 
phide which  is  very  misleading. 

For  glucose,  the  test  with  Fehling's  solution  is  the 
one  most  used.  But  here  care  must  be  taken,  for,  as 
has  been  said,  sucrose  on  heating  changes  to  invert 


AND    THEIR  ADULTERATIONS.  n5 

sugar,  which  reduces  the  copper  of  the  solution ;  so  that 
the  mere  fact  of  a  slight  reduction  of  copper  does  not 
prove  wilful  adulteration.  For  instance,  in  the  case  of 
candies,  the  writer  has  never  yet  been  able  to  find 
candy  or  confectionery  which  did  not  reduce  Fehling's 
solution ;  but  it  is  by  no  means  to  be  concluded  that  all 
confectionery  is  made  from  glucose,  although  undoubt- 
edly a  large  part  of  it  is  so  made. 

Dietzsch  (page  277)  gives  the  following  as  a  qualita- 
tive test.  A  dilute  solution  of  sugar  is  colored  sky- 
blue  with  a  few  drops  of  Fehling's  solution,  and  heated 
to  the  boiling  point.  If  the  sugar  is  all  cane  sugar,  the 
liquid  may  stand  twenty-four  hours  without  showing 
any  change ;  but  if  glucose  or  invert  sugar  is  present, 
the  reddish  color  of  the  reduced  copper  oxide  will 
appear  in  a  few  minutes. 

Fehling's  solution  may  be  made  as  follows :  34.632 
grams  of  pure  dry  copper  sulphate  are  dissolved  in 
500  cc.  of  water  and  put  into  a  .bottle  with  a  glass 
stopper.  173  grams  of  Rochelle  salt  —  tartrate  of 
sodium  and  ammonium —  and  125  grams  of  potassium 
hydrate  are  dissolved  in  500  cc.  of  water,  and  put  into 
a  bottle  with  a  rubber  stopper.  A  glass  stopper  will 
be  liable  to  become  fastened  in  the  bottle  containing 


n6  FOOD  MATERIALS 

caustic  alkalies.  The  solution  of  copper  will  preserve 
its  strength  much  longer  if  kept  separate  from  the 
alkaline  liquid.  For  use,  mix  the  two  in  equal  pro- 
portions, measuring  the  copper  accurately.  50  cc.  of 
the  copper,  or  100  of  the  mixture,  are  considered  to 
reduce  .5  gram  of  grape  or  of  invert  sugar. 

The  skilled  analyst  uses  the  polariscope  or  saccha- 
rimeter  to  determine  the  percentage  of  pure  sugar. 
(See  Blyth,  page  120.) 

A  simple  method  of  detecting  starch  sugar  in  the 
presence  of  cane  sugar  has  been  proposed  by  P. 
Casamajor.  The  suspected  sugar  is  thoroughly  dried, 
then  treated  with  methyl-alcohol  which  has  been 
saturated  with  starch  sugar.  100  cc.  of  methyl-alcohol 
of  500  strength  dissolves  about  57  grams  of  starch 
sugar,  and  will  not  take  up  any  more,  but  will  readily 
dissolve  cane  sugar,  thus  taking  it  out  of  a  mixture, 
leaving  the  adulterant  undissolved. 

The  presence  of  dextrine  in  syrups  may  be  detected 
by  adding  an  equal  volume  of  strong  alcohol  to  the 
undiluted  syrup.  The  dextrine  will  be  precipitated 
as  a  white  gelatinous  mass. 

Syrups  are  very  liable  to  be  not  what  they  seem. 
Dr.  Kedzie,  of  Michigan,  in  1879,  found  only  one  out 


AND    THEIR  ADULTERATIONS.  ny 

of  twenty-one  genuine.  The  black  color  sometimes 
noticed  when  syrup  is  put  into  tea  is  due  to  the  pres- 
ence of  the  salts  of  iron  derived  from  the  pans  during 
boiling. 

HONEY. 

It  is  reported  that  some  9,000,000  pounds  of  honey 
were  produced  in  the  United  States  in  1884,  largely 
in  California. 

It  is  said,  especially  by  English  analysts,  that  much 
American  honey  is  entirely  artificial,  the  comb  being 
made  of  paraffine  and  filled  with  glucose  syrup. 
Two  simple  tests  will  show  whether  this  is  the  case. 
Normal  honey,  being  collected  by  the  bees  from 
flowers,  will  contain  many  pollen  grains.  The  absence 
of  these  is  a  suspicious  circumstance.  Beeswax  is 
blackened  by  warm  sulphuric  acid,  while  paraffine  is 
not  affected. 


VI. 


CANNED    FRUITS    AND    MEATS,    OR    TINNED 
GOODS. 

TF  an  ordinary  tin  fruit-can  is  opened,  and  its  inner 
surface  examined,  it  will  be  found  covered  with  the 
crystalline  figures  often  produced  by  the  action  of  di- 
lute acids  upon  tin,  and  known  as  "moir£e  metallique." 
This  apparent  corrosion  of  the  metallic  surface  sug- 
gests the  possibility  that  an  acid  fruit,  if  kept  for  a 
sufficient  time  in  such  a  can,  may  take  into  solution 
an  injurious  quantity  of  metallic  impurity.  Moreover, 
in  the  making  and  sealing  of  cans,  a  greater  or  less 
amount  of  solder  finds  its  way  inside,  and  thus  the 
fruit  comes  in  contact  with  an  alloy  containing  from 
thirty  to  sixty  per  cent  of  lead.  All  the  common  fruits 
—  the  tomato,  peach,  plum,  cherry,  apple,  pear,  cur- 
rant, etc.  —  owe  their  acidity  to  the  presence  of  acid 
malates,  malic  acid,  or  other  organic  acids. 

Considerable  excitement  is  caused  every  now  and 
then  by  newspaper  stories  of  the  presence  of  tin  in 


FOOD  MATERIALS.  ug 

canned  foods,  and  of  the  illnesses  thus  caused.  In 
England,  especially,  the  chemists  have  paid  consider- 
able attention  to  the  subject ;  and  although  there  is  an 
objection  to  the  calculation  of  the  tin  as  stannous 
hydrate,  the  results  are  interesting. 

Mr.  Wynter  Blyth  tested  canned  fruits  (apricots,  to- 
matoes, etc.),  and  in  twenty- three  samples  the  amounts 
found,  calculated  as  stannous  hydrate,  ranged  from  1.9 
to  14.3  grains  per  pound,  the  mean  amount  being  5.2 
grains.  The  juice  and  fruit,  in  some  instances,  had 
a  metallic  taste.  Several  of  the  tins  showed  signs  of 
corrosion. 

The  Journal  of  the  Society  of  Arts  says :  "  The 
little  that  is  known  of  the  action  of  stannous  hy- 
drate may  be  summed  up  in  a  few  lines.  Doses  of 
about  .174  gram  per  kilo,  of  body  weight,  cause, 
in  guinea-pigs,  death,  with  signs  of  intestinal  irrita- 
tion ;  but  with  doses  smaller  than  .17  to  .2  gram, 
the  effects  are  uncertain,  and  the  animals  usually  re- 
cover. Hence,  supposing  a  man  to  be  affected  in 
the  same  manner  and  proportion,  he  would  have  to 
consume  at  a  meal  ten  pounds  of  the  most  contami- 
nated of  these  tinned  fruits.  But  it  is  not  a  question 
of  immediate  deadliness ;  it  is  rather  an  inquiry  as  to 


I2o  FOOD  MATERIALS 

the  action  of  small  repeated  doses  continued  for  a 
long  time." 

On  the  latter  point  we  have  the  opinions  of  Pro- 
fessor Attfield,  given  in  an  address  before  the  London 
Pharmaceutical  Society,  in  March,  1884.  He  had  re- 
cently examined  sixteen  samples.  He  found  rather 
less  tin  than  Mr.  Blyth.  The  greatest  amount  was 
in  apricots  and  tomatoes,  namely,  .028  grain  in  a 
pound.  The  largest  quantity  which  the  speaker  ever 
found  in  any  food  was  in  some  canned  soup  contain- 
ing a  good  deal  of  lemon  juice ;  this  was  .03  grain  in 
half  a  pint,  as  sent  to  the  table.  The  conclusions  of 
Professor  Attfield  are  as  follows  :  — 

"  1.  I  have  never  been  able  to  satisfy  myself  that  a 
can  of  ordinary  tinned  food  contains  even  a  useful 
medicinal  dose  of  such  a  true  soluble  compound  of 
tin  as  is  likely  to  have  any  effect  on  man. 

"  2.  As  for  the  metal  itself,  —  that  is,  the  filings  or 
actual  metallic  particles  or  fragments,  —  one  ounce  is 
a  common  dose  as  a  vermifuge,  harmless  even  in  that 
quantity  to  man,  and  not  always  so  harmful  as  could 
be  desired  to  the  parasites  for  whose  disestablishment 
it  is  administered.  One  ounce  might  be  contained  in 
four  hundred-weight  of  food. 


AND   THEIR  ADULTERATIONS.   tftJtflJtffflM^  ^ 

Los  M»l 

u  3.  If  a  possible  harmful  quantity  of  a  soluble  com- 
pound of  tin  be  placed  in  a  portion  of  canned  food, 
the  latter  will  be  so  nasty  —  so  metallic,  in  fact  —  that 
no  sane  person  will  eat  it. 

"  4.  Unsoundness  in  meat  does  not  appear  to  pro- 
mote the  corrosion  or  solution  of  tin.  I  have  kept 
salmon  in  cans  until  it  was  putrid,  testing  it  occasion- 
ally for  tin ;  no  trace  was  detected.  Nevertheless, 
food  should  not  be  allowed  to  remain  for  a  few  days, 
or  even  hours,  in  sauce-pans,  metal  baking-pans,  or 
opened  tin  cans ;  for  in  this  case  it  may  taste  metallic. 

"  5.  Unsound  food,  canned  or  uncanned,  may  of 
course  injure  health ;  and  where  canned  food  has  re- 
ally done  harm,  the  harm  has  in  all  probability  been 
due  to  the  food,  and  not  to  the  can. 

"In  my  opinion,  given  after  well  weighing  all  evi- 
dence hitherto  forthcoming,  the  public  have  not  the 
faintest  cause  for  alarm  respecting  the  occurrence  of 
tin,  lead,  01  any  other  metal,  in  canned  foods.  If  per- 
sons are  unwise  enough  to  let  the  food  remain  long  in 
an  opened  tin  can,  they  almost  deserve  to  be  punished 
by  the  metallic  flavor  which  may  be  imparted  to  the 
food." 

A  late  investigation  by  F.  P.  Hall,  in  the  "  Journal 


122  FOOD  MATERIALS 

of  the  American  Chemical  Society  "  (Vol.  IV.  p.  440), 
shows  that  acetic,  tartaric,  and  citric  acids  corrode  tin 
and  lead  when  the  metals  are  pure  and  when  they  are 
alloyed,  but  that  this  corrosion  goes  on  very  much 
more  rapidly  when  air  is  admitted ;  that  is,  when  the 
surface  of  the  metal  can  become  oxidized.  The  acetic 
acid  dissolved  about  six  times  as  much  metal  in  the 
open  air  as  in  closed  vessels.  Cans  which  had  been 
emptied  of  their  contents  were  partly  filled  with  the 
above-named  acids.  At  the  end  of  two  weeks  the  cans 
which  contained  tartaric  and  citric  acids  respectively 
had  given  up  all  the  tinned  surface ;  the  acetic  seemed 
not  to  have  acted  as  readily,  but  there  was  probably 
more  solder  in  the  other  two. 

The  fear  has  been  common  that  tin  plate  might 
be  contaminated  with  lead.  Mr.  Hall's  investigation 
seems  to  allay  such  fears.  He  says  :  "  The  tin  plate 
used  in  this  country  is  entirely  imported,  most  of  it 
coming  from  England.  The  two  principal  kinds  are 
'  bright  plate '  and  '  terne  plate.'  Bright  plate  is,  or 
should  be,  tinned  only  with  pure  tiru  Terne  plate, 
often  called  lead  plate,  is  known  to  contain  large  quan- 
tities of  lead ;  it  is  used  chiefly  for  roofing."  He 
examined  many  samples,  both  of  the  plate  as  imported 


AND    THEIR  ADULTERATIONS.  i2$ 

and  of  tin  cans  and  tin-plate  goods,  among  them  those 
from  the  five-cent  stores,  without  finding  an  appre- 
ciable amount  of  lead.  The  best  of  tin  may  contain 
traces,  as  it  is  almost  impossible  to  obtain  absolutely 
pure  metal  by  any  metallurgical  process.  The  solder 
is  then  the  only  objection  worth  considering,  and 
much  more  care  is  taken  in  sealing  the  cans  than 
formerly.  Of  the  tin-foil  used  to  enwrap  moist  foods 
and  yeast,  the  report  is  not  so  good.  Of  twelve  sam- 
ples examined  which  were  obtained  from  importers, 
only  three  were  pure  tin,  and  three  were  nearly  pure 
lead.  Eight  samples  taken  from  food  and  yeast  were 
examined.  Four  were  pure  tin ;  the  two  found  on 
yeast  were  pure  tin.  This  corresponds  with  the  ex- 
perience of  the  laboratory  through  a  term  of  years. 
The  two  found  on  Neuchatel  cheese  were  both  about 
three  fourths  lead.  Of  the  three  on  chocolate  two 
were  good,  while  an  embossed  foil  on  a  fashionable 
chocolate  consisted  of  eighty  per  cent  of  lead.  The 
use  of  lead-foil  on  cheese  is  objectionable. 

The  following  very  good  rules  for  the  guidance  of 
consumers  of  canned  goods  are  taken  from  an  article 
in  "The  Chemical  News,"  of  June  5,  1885,  by  Dr. 
Johnson,  of  Brooklyn,  N.  Y. 


I24  FOOD  MATERIALS. 

"  Every  cap  should  be  examined,  and  if  two  holes 
are  found  in  it,  send  the  can  at  once  to  the  health- 
board,  with  its  contents  and  the  name  of  the  grocer 
who  sold  it."  Only  one  hole  in  the  cap  is  needed  to 
let  out  the  air  before  final  sealing.  T\o  holes  show 
that  the  can  had  begun  to  swell  on  account  of  decom- 
position, and  had  been  punctured  and  resealed. 

"  Reject  every  article  of  canned  food  that  does  not 
show  the  line  of  resin  around  the  edge  of  the  solder  of 
the  cap,  the  same  as  is  seen  on  the  seam  at  the  side  of 
the  can."  (The  chloride  of  zinc,  which  is  sometimes 
used  instead  of  resin,  is  an  active  poison.) 

"  Press  up  the  bottom  of  the  can  :  if  decomposition 
is  commencing,  the  tin  will  rattle,  the  same  as  the 
bottom  of  the  oiler  of  a  sewing-machine  does.  If  the 
goods  are  sound,  it  will  be  solid,  and  there  will  be  no 
rattle  to  the  tin. 

"  Reject  every  can  that  shows  any  rust  around  the 
cap  on  the  inside  of  the  head  of  the  can." 


VII. 

CONDIMENTS. 

MUSTARD. 

/THHE  mustard  of  commerce  is  the  seed  of  the  plant 
■*■  Sinapis,  of  different  species,  ground  into  flour.  It 
belongs  to  one  of  the  most  useful  families  of  our  tem- 
perate zone.  This  is  the  Mustard  family,  Cruciferoe. 
It  is  a  hardy  plant,  and  grows  very  readily  in  our 
climate.  The  famous  Durham  mustard  was  originally 
made  from  the  wild  charlock,  Sinapis  arvensis,  which 
grew  abundantly  around  Durham,  and  has  a  pleasant, 
mildly  pungent  flavor.  The  name  is  still  retained  as 
a  trade-mark.  The  charlock  grows  as  a  weed  in  our 
fields,  but  has  never  been  here  utilized.  Along  the 
coast  of  Ireland,  the  fields,  as  seen  from  the  passing 
steamer,  look  yellow  with  the  blossoms  of  the  wild 
charlock,  or  Charlie,  as  it  is  familiarly  called.  Black 
and  white  mustard  are  the  two  kinds  usually  found 
in   the    market,  —  the   seeds  of  Sinapis    nigra  and 


126  FOOD  MATERIALS 

Sinapis  alba.  Since  the  whole  seeds  are  to  be  had, 
the  best  way  to  study  the  condiment  is  to  purchase 
some  seeds,  and  grind  them.  Several  points  of  dif- 
ference between  this  undoubtedly  pure  article,  and 
that  which  is  bought  ground  will  be  noticed.  In  the 
first  place  the  ground  seeds  are  very  oily.  This  is  not 
the  pungent  volatile  oil  which  gives  the  flavor,  but  a 
bland  fixed  oil  which  is  always  expressed  from  the  seeds 
before  they  are  manufactured  into  mustard.  It  finds 
a  ready  sale  as  a  lubricant,  and  is  said  to  enter  largely 
into  the  composition  of  cosmoline,  etc.,  forming  the 
basis  of  these  emollients,  to  which  petroleum  is  then 
added. 

Next,  the  color  of  the  pure  mustard  will  attract 
attention.  There  is  no  mustard  of  a  bright  yellow 
color,  the  brightest  possible  color  being  a  dull  yel- 
low. The  bright  yellow  of  the  shops,  is  either  largely 
rape-seed,  or  artificially  colored  to  suit  a  popular 
taste.  Another  noticeable  difference  is  in  the  pun- 
gent smell  and  taste  of  the  home-ground  article.  If 
such  mustard  is  used  for  a  time,  that  of  the  shops 
seems  very  insipid. 

Mustard  is  one  of  the  most  universal  and  wholesome 
condiments,  but  its  use  in  medicine  is  even  more  im- 


AND    THEIR  ADULTERATIONS.     ■       ^7 

portant.  It  is  of  the  utmost  consequence  to  have  a 
genuine  article,  when  it  is-  to  be  used  as  an  active 
remedy  in  sudden  illness.  The  balance  of  life  and 
death  may  depend  upon  the  quality  of  the  mustard 
used  for  the  emetic,  the  plaster,  or  the  bath.  Every 
housekeeper  should  see  that  her  medicine-chest  is  sup- 
plied with  pure  mustard,  whatever  may  be  the  quality 
of  that  in  her  spice-box. 

The  adulterations  are  many.  Probably  two  thirds  of 
the  mustard  sold  is  anything  but  pure  ground  seeds. 
The  principal  ingredients  are  starch  from  wheat,  rice, 
or  corn  flour,  tumeric  to  color  the  too  white  starch, 
rape-seed,  old  turnip  and  radish  seed  unfit  for  planting, 
linseed,  etc. 

Of  the  thirty  samples  examined  in  the  laboratory  of 
the  writer,  twenty-one  contained  more  or  less  starch. 
Hardly  any  seeds  of  Cruciferae  contain  starch ;  hence 
its  presence  is  a  proof  of  adulteration.  The  blue  or 
dark-purple  color  which  iodine  causes  in  starch  grains, 
and  the  thickening  in  boiling  water,  are  the  simplest 
tests.  In  eleven  samples  tumeric  was  added.  This  was 
readily  detected  by  the  microscope,  as  are  also  the 
other  seeds.  The  per  cent  of  oil  may  be  used  to 
determine  the  relative  strengths  of  a  number  of  sam- 


I28  FOOD  MATERIALS 

pies,  since  it  is  upon  the  volatile,  pungent  oil  that  the 
peculiar  properties  of  mustard  depend.  In  1882,  Pro- 
fessor Lattimore  found  sixty-six  per  cent  of  the  samples 
examined  for  the  New  York  State  Board  of  Health 
to  be  adulterated.  The  addition  of  any  mineral  mat- 
ter, such  as  terra  alba,  yellow  ochre,  etc.,  may  be 
detected  by  burning  two  or  three  grams,  and  weigh- 
ing the  ash.  The  genuine  mustard  gives  about  four 
per  cent  of  ash. 

PEPPER. 

Pepper-corns  are  the  berries  of  the  plant  Piper 
nigrum,  which  grows  only  in  tropical  climates.  Has- 
sall  says  that  Malabar,  Penang,  and  Sumatra  are  the 
three  kinds  most  prized.  Black  and  white  pepper  are 
from  the  same  plant,  the  only  difference  being  that 
black  pepper  is  the  whole  berry,  while  the  white  has 
been  deprived  of  the  husk  or  outer  layer  of  the  berry, 
which  is  black.  White  pepper  is  milder  than  the 
black,  for  the  husks  are  quite  pungent.  The  best  is 
that  from  the  whole  berry.  A  good  way  to  secure  pure 
pepper  is  to  use  a  little  mill  on  the  table,  and  to  grind 
the  whole  berries  as  wanted.  The  mills  are  now  to 
be  had,  imported  from  Europe.     The  active  properties 


AND    THEIR  ADULTERATIONS. 


129 


of  pepper  depend  upon  three  substances,  —  about  six- 
teen per  cent  of  acrid  resin  and  piperine,  and  one  to 
two  per  cent  of  volatile  oil. 

The  adulteration  of  pepper  is  extensive.  Indeed,  it 
is  the  exception,  rather  than  the  rule,  to  find  a  pure 
article  in  the  market.  Wheat  flour,  ground  rice,  Indian 
meal,  husks  of  the  London-made  white  pepper,  husks 
of  mustard,  and  the  mysterious  "  P.  D."  pepper  dust, 
said  to  be  the  sweepings  of  the  warehouses,  can  be 
imported  for  as  many  cents  a  pound  as  the  prepared 
article  can  be  sold  for  per  ounce  ;  so  that  there  is  great 
temptation  to  use  these  harmless,  but  not  tempting 
mixtures.  Time  and  trouble  are  saved  by  the  pur- 
chase of  ready-ground  condiments,  but  the  price  paid 
is  too  great  in  proportion. 

Of  sixteen  samples  examined,  three  were  fairly  good  ; 
nine  were  made  up  of  pepper  and  mustard  husks,  flour, 
and  Indian  meal.  Most  of  the  adulterations  can  be 
detected  by  the  microscope,  after  a  careful  study  of 
the  structure  of  the  various  seeds  and  husks ;  but  ex- 
perience has  taught  the  writer,  that  considerable  prac- 
tice is  required  to  become  expert  at  the  detection 
of  the  kind  of  foreign  matters  used.  The  result  of 
the  examination  of  pepper,  under  the  direction  of 
9 


13°  FOOD  MATERIALS 

the  New  York  State  Board  of  Health  in  1882  showed 
that  seventy  per  cent  of  the  commercial  article  was 
adulterated. 

Cayenne  Pepper. 

Red  or  Cayenne  pepper  is  made  from  the  ground 
pods  of  various  species  of  Capsicum,  a  plant  of  the 
Nightshade  family.  The  cayenne  of  commerce  is  de- 
rived from  tropical  species,  but  the  pods  of  the  red 
peppers  which  are  commonly  cultivated  for  pickles, 
when  ground,  make  a  very  good  cayenne.  The  pe- 
culiar pungent  taste  is  due  to  the  presence  of  about 
four  per  cent  of  an  acrid  resin.  The  earlier  English 
writers  state  that  cayenne  is  more  liable  to  adulteration 
than  black  pepper,  and  alarming  stories  are  told  of  the 
presence  of  red-lead,  mercury,  etc.  But  the  results  of 
examinations  made  in  this  country  do  not  show  any 
poisonous  addition,  and  the  addition  of  flour,  etc.,  is 
rather  less  than  in  black  pepper. 

SPICES. 

Those  spices,  like  nutmeg,  cloves,  stick  cinnamon, 
mace,  and  allspice,  which  are  bought  by  weight,  and 


AND    THEIR  ADULTERATIONS.  131 

in  the  form  in  which  they  are  gathered,  are  not  exactly 
capable  of  adulteration.  But  there  is  a  certain  decep- 
tion to  be  guarded  against.  An  inferior  or  cheaper 
quality  of  the  same  or  of  a  similar  kind  of  spice  may 
be  mixed  with,  or  substituted  for,  better  or  more 
costly  sorts,  without  any  corresponding  diminution  in 
price. 

For  instance,  wild  nutmegs  are  mixed  with  cultivated 
ones,  bearing  about  the  same  relation  to  the  best  quali- 
ties that  a  cider  apple  does  to  a  fine  Baldwin.  It  is  the 
same  with  mace  and  cloves,  while  cassia  is  substituted 
for  cinnamon  only  too  largely,  so  that  it  is  almost  im- 
possible to  find  stick  cinnamon  that  is  not  mixed  with 
cassia.  To  learn  to  know  the  genuine  species  with 
certainty,  is  our  only  safeguard.  Then,  if  we  choose 
to  buy  cassia,  we  shall  do  it  with  our  eyes  open,  and 
without  paying  the  price  of  the  delicate  and  costly 
cinnamon. 

Nutmegs. 

There  are  three  species  of  Myristica  which  furnish 
nutmegs.  The  best  are  the  kernels  of  the  Myristica 
fragrans,  and  are  called  queen  nutmegs.  The  tree  is  a 
native  of  the  East  India  islands,  but  is  also  cultivated 


I32  FOOD  MATERIALS 

in  India  and  Central  America.  The  best  nutmegs  are 
those  from  Penang,  which  are  about  an  inch  in  length, 
shaped  like  a  damson  plum.  The  kernels  are  usually 
pickled  in  lime-water,  to  ward  off  the  attacks  of  insects 
to  which  they  are  particularly  liable.  The  weight  of 
good  nutmegs  should  be,  on  an  average,  one  hundred 
to  the  pound,  or  nearly  seven  to  the  ounce,  grocers' 
weight.  Very  fine  ones  weigh  eighty  and  one  hundred 
to  the  pound,  or  five  or  six  to  the  ounce.  If  pricked 
with  a  pin,  the  oil  exudes  visibly,  and  the  pin  also  pene- 
trates readily.  Wild  nutmegs  are  small  and  pointed. 
They  are  inferior  in  the  amount  of  oil,  and  in  the 
general  fragrance. 

Cinnamon. 

The  best  cinnamon  comes  from  Ceylon.  It  is  the 
bark  of  a  tree  of  the  Laurel  family,  which  gives  us,  even 
in  this  temperate  climate,  such  plants  as  our  sassafras 
and  our  spice-bush.  The  trees  are  topped  like  osier 
willows,  and  the  cinnamon  used  is  the  bark  from  the 
young  shoots,  which  form  the  bush  at  the  top  of  the 
tree,  and  which  are  cut  twice  a  year.  A  tract  not 
much  more  than  a  quarter  of  a  mile  square  forms  the 
great  cinnamon  orchard  of  Ceylon.     No  other  country 


AND    THEIR   ADULTERATIONS.  133 

produces  so  fine  a  quality,  or  so  great  a  quantity,  as 
the  fertile  and  siliceous  tracts  of  Ceylon  and  the 
neighboring  islands. 

The  most  noticeable  character  of  true  cinnamon  is 
its  splintery,  fibrous  quality.  It  tears  rather  than  breaks, 
and  is  in  small,  thin  rolls.  The  taste  is  sweet  and 
spicy,  and  it  retains  its  flavor  long  in  the  mouth.  Cas- 
sia, or  Chinese  cinnamon,  is  used  to  mix  with  it,  being 
cheap  and  abundant.  It  is  coarser  and  in  thicker  rolls. 
It  breaks  readily,  but  does  not  tear,  and  if  chewed 
is  granular  and  rather  mucilaginous.  It  lacks  the 
delicate,  sweet  taste  and  smell  of  cinnamon,  having 
a  peculiar  woody,  strong  flavor  of  its  own. 

The  amount  of  true  cinnamon  consumed  in  the 
United  States  for  the  year  ending  June  30,  1875,  was 
valued  at  $4,013,  while  the  value  of  cassia  was  $279,250, 
or  nearly  seventy  times  as  much. 

Mace. 

Mace  is  the  aril  of  the  nutmeg,  and  its  quality 
depends  very  greatly  upon  the  kind  of  kernel  upon 
which  it  grows,  the  aril  of  the  queen  nutmeg  being 
the  best. 


134 


FOOD  MATERIALS 


Cloves. 


Cloves  are  the  unexpanded  flower-buds  of  the 
Caryophyllus  aromaticus,  a  tree  of  the  Myrtle  family, 
which  is  a  native  of  the  Moluccas,  but  which  is  cul- 
tivated in  the  East  and  West  Indies,  Guiana,  and 
Brazil.  Like  all  the  spices  under  consideration,  the 
active  principle  is  due  to  one  or  more  oils,  which  may 
be,  and  are,  extracted  and  sold  as  oil  of  clove,  oil  of 
cassia,  etc.  Whole  cloves  can  hardly  be  said  to  be 
adulterated,  although  the  stalks  are  sometimes  in  ex- 
cess of  the  buds,  and  advantage  is  taken  of  the  prop- 
erty of  imbibing  a  large  portion  of  moisture  to  increase 
the  weight. 

Pimento,  or  Allspice. 

Pimento  is  the  berry  of  the  Euginia  pimento,  a  tree 
of  the  Myrtle  family,  a  native  of  the  Caribbee  Islands, 
and  also  cultivated  in  the  East  Indies.  The  berries 
have  a  fragrant  odor,  supposed  to  resemble  a  mixture 
of  cloves,  cinnamon,  and  nutmegs  :  hence  the  name  of 
Allspice. 


AND    THEIR  ADULTERATIONS. 


135 


Ginger. 
The  ginger  plant,  Zinziber  officinale,  belongs  to  the 
order  from  which  tumeric  and  East  India  arrow-root 
are  obtained.  It  is  a  native  of  India  and  China,  and 
is  cultivated  in  Tropical  America  and  Africa.  The 
ginger  of  commerce  is  derived  from  the  fleshy  creep- 
ing root-stalks,  which  are  dug  up  when  about  a  year 
old,  and,  if  scraped  and  dried,  give  white  or  Jamaica 
ginger ;  if  left  coated,  or  unscraped,  black  or  East 
India  ginger.  Calcutta  exports  the  principal  part  of 
the  ginger  used.  Ginger  contains,  besides  the  volatile 
oil,  an  aromatic  resin. 

Curry. 
Curry  is  not  very  extensively  used  in  America,  yet  it 
is  found  so  often  as  to  justify  a  word.  It  is  composed 
of  a  mixture  of  spices,  and  highly  colored  with  tumeric. 
It  is  liable  to  variations  of  strength,  as  are  the  spices  of 
which  it  is  composed. 

Adulteration  of  Spices. 
In  ground  spices,  as  a  rule,  we  find  much  reason 
for  dissatisfaction.      Their    only  merit  now  is   con- 
venience, not  quality.      Nutmegs,   mace,  and  cloves 


I36  FOOD  MATERIALS 

are  so  oily  that,  to  grind  them  easily,  some  absorbent 
like  sawdust  or  starch  is  added,  and  this  becomes  a 
part  of  the  ground  spice  as  the  first  step,  whatever 
may  be  added  later.  There  is,  however,  but  little 
demand  for  ground  nutmeg,  American  housekeepers 
having  the  good  sense  to  prefer  the  whole  nuts. 

Twelve  specimens  of  cinnamon  were  examined. 
Only  three  of  these  contained  any  cinnamon  at  all. 
Even  these  were  mixed  with  cassia  and  sawdust.  The 
other  nine  were  chiefly  cassia  and  sawdust,  mahogany 
sawdust  being  distinctly  identified  in  some  of  them. 
Two  contained  a  very  little  cassia  and  a  great  deal  of 
sawdust ;  and  the  third  was  nothing  but  sawdust,  there 
being  no  trace  of  any  spice  in  it. 

Professor  Lattimore,  in  the  New  York  State  Board 
of  Health  Report  for  1883,  found  that  of  the  samples 
examined  seventy  per  cent  of  the  allspice  was  adul- 
terated, eighty-two  per  cent  of  the  cinnamon,  fifty-seven 
per  cent  of  the  cassia,  seventy-six  per  cent  of  the  cloves  ; 
but  no  poisonous  substance  was  found  in  any. 

All  these  spices  may  be  examined  under  the  micro- 
scope for  adulterations ;  but,  as  has  been  said  before, 
experience  only  will  give  the  training  of  the  eye  which 
will  render  an  opinion  worth  anything.     Each  kind  of 


AND    THEIR  ADULTERATIONS.  j^-j 

spice  here  mentioned  has  its  own  peculiarities,  and, 
after  these  are  thoroughly  studied,  the  additions  may 
be  at  once  determined.  The  adulterations  are  much 
the  same  in  all  this  class,  —  starch  in  some  form, 
tumeric  for  color,  mustard  husks  for  pungency.  Pro- 
fessor Lattimore  gives  the  per  cent  of  adulteration  of 
the  fifteen  gingers  which  he  examined  as  sixty-six,  but 
the  samples  from  Boston  and  vicinity  seem  better. 
Of  twenty-eight  specimens,  only  seven  (or  twenty- 
five  per  cent)  were  adulterated.  Three  of  these  were 
adulterated  with  starch  and  tumeric,  one  with  starch 
and  mustard  husks,  one  with  tumeric,  and  two  with 
starch  only.  The  remaining  twenty-one  varied  in 
color  from  a  tawny  white  to  brown,  but  were  all  fra- 
grant and  good,  and  some  excellent.  None  were  at 
all  yellow,  except  the  four  to  which  tumeric  had  been 
added.  The  difference  in  color  is  owing  simply  to 
the  preparation.  The  bark  is  scraped  off  the  fleshy 
roots,  as  in  the  whole  white  ginger-root,  or  the  pre- 
served ginger.  Then  the  ground  ginger  is  quite  light 
in  color.  If  the  bark  is  left  on,  the  ginger  is  brown 
when  ground.  In  whole  ginger  there  is  often  a  white 
coating  upon  the  roots.  This  is  only  lime,  into  which 
they  have  been  dipped  to  protect  them  from  insects. 


138 


FOOD  MATERIALS 


SALAD   OIL. 


Some  other  condiments  deserve  a  passing  notice. 
Among  these  may  be  classed  salad  oil,  which  has 
until  recently  been  olive  oil  of  various  grades,  but  all 
expressed  from  the  fruit  of  the  olive  tree.  But  as  the 
demand  grew,  and  as  the  American  refined  lard  oil 
became  cheap,  great  quantities  are  said  to  have  been 
shipped  to  the  oil-producing  countries  of  Italy,  and 
returned  in  the  shape  of  pure  olive.  It  has  been  sup- 
posed that  certain  grades  of  refined  petroleum  oils  have 
been  used  for  the  same  purpose,  though  the  exporta- 
tion was  very  carefully  managed.  At  present  a  great 
deal  of  the  salad  oil  has  never  crossed  the  seas,  but  is 
known  to  the  dealers  for  what  it  is,  cotton-seed  oil. 
The  oil  is  pressed  out  from  the  cotton  seeds  by  power- 
ful presses,  and  makes  a  very  clear,  sweet  oil,  just  as 
wholesome,  for  aught  any  one  knows,  as  the  oil  pressed 
from  the  olive,  and  for  home  use  it  is  certainly  much 
cheaper.  The  trouble  with  the  sale  of  it  being,  like 
that  of  oleomargarine,  that  it  is  sold  under  false  pre- 
tences, and  for  an  exorbitant  price. 

The  detection  of  the  per  cent  of  cotton-seed  oil  in 
the  presence  of  olive  oil  is  difficult,  and  the  presence 


AND    THEIR  ADULTERATIONS.  I39 

of  lard  oil  is  likewise  very  hard  to  determine,  so  that 
it  is  of  little  use  to  give  here  the  various  tests  which 
have  been  proposed.  The  chemistry  of  the  several 
oils  is  not  understood  sufficiently  to  allow  of  definite 
statements,  and  since  the  chemical  composition  of  the 
oils,  so  far  as  it  is  known,  shows  them  to  be  similar, 
it  is  a  question  if  it  will  be  possible  to  separate  the 
elements  of  the  seed  oils  with  the  same  certainty  that 
one  metallic  element  is  separated  from  another. 


FLAVORING  EXTRACTS. 

These  have  had,  periodically,  highly  sensational  stories 
told  about  them.  In  the  two  or  three  dozen  samples 
examined  in  the  laboratory,  no  harmful  ingredient  was 
found.  There  was  a  great  deal  of  difference  in  the 
strength  of  the  different  brands.  Most  of  the  lemon 
flavor  is  only  dilute  alcohol,  in  which  a  few  drops  of 
oil  of  lemon  is  dissolved. 


VINEGAR. 

Vinegar,  vin  aigre,  as  its  name  implies,  was  originally 
made  from  sour  wine,  that  is,  from  wine  in  which  the 


140  FOOD  MATERIALS 

alcoholic  fermentation  had  given  place  to  that  which 
produces  acetic  acid.  The  whole  of  the  alcohol  may 
be  changed  into  acetic  acid  by  means  of  the  vinegar 
ferment,  Mycodermi  accti,  commonly  called  mother  of 
vinegar.  A  very  little  of  this  in  the  presence  of  air  is 
sufficient  to  convert  a  large  quantity  of  alcohol.  The 
reaction  seems  to  be  as  follows  :  common  ethylic  alco- 
hol (C2HG0),  by  the  addition  of  two  atoms  of  oxygen, 
yields  acetic  acid  and  water  (H20-|-C2H402). 

In  the  so-called  "  quick  "or  "  German  "  process,  the 
oxidation  of  the  weak  alcoholic  liquor  is  hastened  by 
letting  it  trickle  through  shavings  already  saturated 
with  vinegar,  the  temperature  being  maintained  at 
about  900  F. 

In  the  United  States  the  alcoholic  liquor  used  is 
chiefly  whiskey,  diluted  with  eight  or  ten  times  its  bulk 
of  water.  Tall  tubs,  sometimes  twenty  or  more  feet 
high,  are  filled  with  clean  beech  shavings  well  packed, 
These  are  first  soaked  with  strong  vinegar ;  then  the 
diluted  whiskey  is  poured  on  the  top,  a  little  at  a  time, 
and  slowly  finds  its  way  down  to  the  bottom,  where  it 
is  drawn  off  as  vinegar.  The  air  is  let  in  near  the 
bottom  by  small  orifices,  and  finds  its  way  to  the  top 
by  the   draft   caused   by  the   heat  of  the   oxidation. 


AND    THEIR  ADULTERATIONS.  I4I 

Whiskey  may  thus  be  converted  into  vinegar  in  twenty- 
four  hours. 

Cider  is  also  used  to  a  considerable  extent,  in  the 
United  States,  for  the  manufacture  of  vinegar.  In  for- 
mer years,  most  of  it  was  derived  from  this  source. 
The  cider  is  left  for  a  longer  time  (from  eight  to  ten 
months)  in  half-filled  casks,  the  bungs  being  left  out  to 
allow  the  free  entrance  of  air.  The  flavor  of  cider 
vinegar  is  peculiar,  and  is  much  preferred  by  many 
people. 

Proof  vinegar  contains  about  five  per  cent  of  acetic 
acid,  but  that  sold  in  the  shops  often  contains  only 
three  per  cent,  or  even  less.  Because  of  the  high  price 
of  vinegar,  it  has  frequently  been  adulterated  with  other 
acids,  such  as  sulphuric,  muriatic,  and  rarely  with  nitric. 
They  may  be  detected  as  follows.  To  one  portion  of 
the  suspected  vinegar  add  a  few  drops  of  barium  chlo- 
ride. Only  a  slight  cloudiness  should  appear,  but  any 
considerable  precipitate  will  show  the  presence  of  an 
undue  amount  of  sulphuric  acid.  Hydrochloric  acid 
is  shown  by  the  addition  of  a  few  drops  of  silver  nitrate 
to  a  fresh  portion  of  the  sample.  A  white  flocculent 
precipitate  will  appear  if  there  has  been  an  addition  of 
hydrochloric  acid.     For  the  relative  strength  of  a  num- 


l42  FOOD  MATERIALS 

ber  of  samples,  if  the  apparatus  for  volumetric  analysis 
is  at  hand,  the  quantity  of  soda  which  the  same  number 
of  cubic  centimetres  will  neutralize,  will  give  an  approxi- 
mate test,  but  not  exact,  because  acetate  of  sodium  has 
itself  a  slight  alkaline  reaction.  With  baryta  water 
(barium  hydrate)  as  the  alkali,  and  tumeric  as  the  test 
paper,  the  method  gives  very  close  results. 

For  ketchups,  sauces,  and  pickles  which  are  pre- 
pared with  vinegar,  pure  vinegar  should  be  used.  In 
the  case  of  pickles,  a  depraved  taste  has  led  to  the 
demand  for  bright  green  pickles,  and  this  taste  has 
sometimes  been  gratified  by  boiling  the  pickles  in 
copper  kettles  with  vinegar  and  a  little  alum.  The 
acetic  acid  of  the  vinegar  acts  upon  the  copper,  forming 
a  little  acetate  of  copper,  one  of  the  most  poisonous  of 
all  the  salts  of  copper;  and  this,  being  absorbed  by 
the  pickles,  colors  them  green.  Cheap  pickles  are  put 
up  in  adulterated  vinegar.  The  tests  are  the  same  as 
those  given  above.  For  the  presence  of  copper,  im- 
merse a  strip  of  clean  bright  iron  in  the  liquid,  and,  if 
copper  is  present,  the  iron  will  become  coated  with  a 
thin  film  of  metallic  copper. 


AND    THEIR  ADULTERATIONS. 


SALT. 


J43 


Salt  is  of  universal  use,  and  it  has  been  known  from 
the  earliest  times.  It  is  found  in  a  solid  rock-like  form 
in  many  countries.  Salt  springs  are  not  uncommon, 
and  on  the  coast  the  evaporation  of  sea-water  gives 
sea-salt.  Rock-salt  is  mined  in  Austria  and  at  North- 
wick,  near  Liverpool,  in  England.  A  mine  is  now 
worked  in  Louisiana.  Much  salt  is  made  in  New 
York,  Michigan,  Ohio,  Virginia,  and  West  Virginia,  by 
evaporating  the  water  of  salt  springs.  Salt  is  nearly 
pure  sodium  chloride,  but  it  almost  always  contains 
small  quantities  of  chloride  of  magnesium,  which  causes 
the  salt  to  become  moist  in  damp  air,  and  which  gives 
it  the  bitter  taste  often  noticed. 

There  is  a  difference  of  opinion  as  to  the  healthful- 
ness  of  salt  when  taken  with  food.  Habit,  rather  than 
common  sense,  seems  to  govern  the  amount  used. 


VIII. 

PERISHABLE    FOODS,  AND    THE    MEANS    FOR 
PRESERVING    THEM. 

MEAT,  FISH,   ETC. 

OINCE  butcher's  meat  is  not  liable  to  adulteration, 
properly  speaking,  any  extended  discussion  of  its 
character  would  be  out  of  place  in  this  little  volume. 
Yet  it  cannot  be  passed  by  without  a  word,  for  it  is  a 
form  of  food  which  requires  very  little  expenditure  of 
force  for  its  assimilation,  since  that  work  was  done  by 
the  animal  when  living,  and  man  avails  himself  of  it. 
Rightly  used,  it  forms  a  valuable  addition  to  man's 
diet.  The  consumption  of  meat  has  steadily  increased, 
in  spite  of  the  increase  in  price.  It  is  said  that  the  cost 
of  meat  in  England  has  increased  thirty-five  per  cent 
in  the  past  twenty-two  years.  A  large  quantity  of  dried 
and  tinned  meat  is  now  exported  from  Australia  and 
South  America. 

The  amount  consumed  in  different  countries  varies 
from  about  one  tenth  of  a  pound  a  day,  or  one  pound 


FOOD  MATERIALS. 


J45 


in  ten  days,  in  Russia  and  Spain,  one  pound  in  three 
days  in  England,  one  in  two  days  in  New  York,  to  a 
pound  a  day  in  Buenos  Ayres  and  Uruguay,  where 
animals  are  killed  for  their  hides  and  horns.  Meat 
should  be  obtained  from  healthy  animals,  and  kept  in 
a  clean  place,  in  order  that  it  may  form  a  wholesome 
food.  The  bad  odor  of  tainted  meat  should  be  a  suf- 
ficient warning  of  its  character.  A  very  slight  taint, 
such  as  sometimes  occurs  on  the  outer  edges,  may 
be  corrected  by  placing  some  charcoal  in  the  water 
in  which  it  is  boiling.  In  order  to  kill  all  parasites, 
meat  should  be  thoroughly  cooked ;  and  for  this,  boil- 
ing is  safer  than  roasting.  A  general  average  com- 
position may  be  shown  by  the  following  mean  of 
many  analyses  :  — 

Mineral  Nitrogenous  _ 

Matter.  Substance.  Fat"  Waten 

Beef  5  per  ct.         1 5  per  ct.        30  per  ct.        50  per  ct. 

Mutton  3.5  "  12.5  "  40    "  44    " 

Fish   seems  to  be   somewhat   less   digestible   than 

meat,  possibly  on  account  of  the  little  blood  in  the 

tissue.     The  average  composition  is  :  mineral  matter, 

one  to  two  per  cent ;  nitrogenous   substance,  ten  to 

twenty ;  fat,  five  to  ten ;  water,  seventy  to  eighty  per 
cent. 


146  FOOD  MATERIALS 

Eggs  contain  all  the  necessary  constituents  of  food 
in  the  most  concentrated  form, — so  concentrated  as 
to  be  unsuited  for  the  whole  of  the  daily  ration.  For 
convalescents  they  are  invaluable  when  they  can  be 
obtained  fresh.  From  their  very  composition  they  are 
extremely  liable  to  putrefaction.  This  change  may  be 
prevented  by  the  exclusion  of  air,  either  by  coating  the 
shell  with  an  impervious  layer  of  oil,  gum,  or  paraffine, 
or  by  treatment  with  calcium  salts,  or  by  plunging  the 
egg  into  boiling  water  for  a  few  seconds.  Desiccated 
eggs  are  now  much  used. 

The  seeds  of  the  Leguminosa5,j>m.y,  beans,  and  len- 
tils, may  be  called  meat  substitutes,  since  they  contain 
about  twenty-five  per  cent  of  nitrogenous  substance, 
twelve  of  water,  and  fifty  of  starch.  As  dried  seeds 
they  should  stand  next  in  importance  to  the  cereals ; 
but  since  beans  and  peas  especially  are  eaten  green, 
as  vegetables,  even  more  than  in  the  dried  state,  they 
cannot  be  omitted  in  this  list.  This  form  of  food 
is  not  sufficiently  appreciated,  especially  by  working 
people.  It  should  be  eaten  with  starch  or  fat  foods. 
Hence  the  New  England  dish  of  baked  pork  and 
beans  was  a  perfectly  suitable  and  well-proportioned 
food  for  people  whose  life  was   spent  largely  in   the 


AND    THEIR  ADULTERATIONS.  I47 

open  air,  in  arduous  pioneer  work.  The  nutritious 
seeds  are  less  easily  digested  than  the  cereals.  The 
"ash"  contains  more  lime  and  less  phosphates.  Some 
member  of  this  group  of  plants  grows  in  every  land. 

VEGETABLES   AND   FRUITS. 

Vegetables  are  usually  understood  to  include  certain 
roots  and  tubers,  as  the  potato,  sweet  potato,  turnip, 
and  beet,  with  some  fruits,  as  the  tomato,  squash,  and 
cucumber.  These  are  used  in  the  fresh  condition,  and 
are  not  subject  to  adulteration.  They  are  largely  com- 
posed of  water,  seventy-five  to  ninety  five  per  cent. 
The  small  nutritive  value.  \Mhich  they  possess  is  due 
to  the  starch  and  sugar,  and  not  to  the  nitrogenous 
material,  which  is  present  in  small  quantity  only.  The 
percentage  of  "  ash "  is  higher  than  in  cereals,  and 
contains  more  potassium  salts.  This  is  also  the  case 
in  fruits,  so  called,  —  apple,  pear,  grape,  peach,  and 
orange.  These  contain  sugar,  instead  of  the  starch 
of  the  vegetable,  and  also  an  acid  which  gives  a 
pleasant  relish  and  is  a  stimulant  to  the  appetite.  The 
general  composition  of  fruits  may  be  stated  at  eighty- 
five  per  cent  water,  eight  per  cent  sugar,  and  one  per 


I48  FOOD  MATERIALS 

cent  acid.  When  much  salted  meat  is  eaten,  fruit  and 
vegetables  are  very  essential  correctives  of  diet,  on 
account  of  the  acid,  and  possibly  on  account  of  the 
potassium  salts,  which  are  supposed  to  replace  the 
excess  of  sodium  salts  taken  with  the  meat. 

There  is  little  danger  in  the  use  of  vegetables  and 
fruits  as  food,  if  they  are  fresh,  not  wilted,  and  are  fully 
grown  or  ripened.  The  skin  of  the  potato  contains  a 
poisonous  substance,  which  is  volatilized  when  the  tuber 
is  boiled,  steamed,  or  baked.  The  skin  of  the  cucum- 
ber is  indigestible,  as  is  that  of  the  peach.  Currants 
should  be  well  washed  before  being  placed  upon  the 
table,  as  the  bushes  are  often  dusted  over  with  helle- 
bore, or  with  Paris  green,  an  arsenical  preparation,  to 
prevent  the  ravages  of  worms. 

The  same  caution  is  applicable  to  some  of  the 
relishes,  as  lettuce  and  cabbage.  These  green  foods 
should  be  crisp,  not  wilted.  They  are  important  ad- 
juncts to  diet  on  account  of  the  mineral  matters,  vege- 
table acids,  and  peculiar  flavoring  principles.  Fruits 
and  vegetables  add  a  certain  bulk  to  the  meal  which 
seems  to  favor  digestion. 

Dried  fruits,  as  raisins,  figs,  etc.,  have  a  nutritive 
value   nearly  equal  to  that  of  bread,  containing  forty 


STATE  NOBNIAI  & 

LosAnge^Cai 
AND    THEIR  ADULTERATIONS.  149 

to  fifty  per  cent  of  sugar.  Raisins  have  proved  an 
excellent  food  for  Arctic  expeditions,  sustaining  the 
animal  heat  under  extreme  conditions.  The  impor- 
tance of  this  food  material  may  be  seen  from  a  state- 
ment of  the  amount  prepared  in  California  alone  in 
1884,  viz.:  of  prunes,  1,870,000  pounds;  of  apples, 
1,600,000;  of  peaches,  550,000;  of  sun-dried  grapes, 
150,000  ;  and  of  raisins,  175,000. 

Jellies  are  a  sort  of  dried  fruit-juice.  Many  fruits 
contain  a  substance  called  pectin  or  pectose,  which 
forms  when  heated  with  sugar  a  gelatinous  mass 
which  will  keep  good  for  a  long  time  if  put  in  a 
cool  and  dry  place.  For  a  detailed  account  of  the 
various  substances  here  referred  to,  see  "  Food,"  by 
A.  H.  Church. 

Since  putrefactive  fermentation  requires  air,  moist- 
ure, and  warmth  for  its  progress,  the  decay  of  food  sub- 
stances may  be  prevented,  — 

(1.)  By  subjecting  them  to  extremes  of  tempera- 
ture :  to  freezing,  so  that  the  germs  cannot  grow ; 
or  to  heat  equal  to  or  above  that  of  boiling  water, 
so  that  the  germs  are  killed. 

(2.)  By  the  exclusion  of  air,  as  in  canning  or  bot- 
tling, or  by  coating  the  substance  over  with  a  layer 
impervious  to  air. 


I5o  FOOD  MATERIALS. 

(3.)  By  the  removal  of  moisture,  as  in  drying  meats 
and  fruits ;  vegetables  are  now  so  prepared  for  soups, 
etc. 

(4.)  By  cooking  in  concentrated  sugar  syrup,  as  in 
preserves  :  this  combines  the  removal  of  moisture  with 
an  impervious  coating. 

There  is  also  the  less  wholesome,  but  very  common 
method  of  preservation  by  the  application  of  anti- 
septics ;  such  as  salt  and  smoke  for  meats ;  brandy, 
vinegar,  etc.,  for  fruits ;  borax  and  salicilic  acid  for 
various  substances.  These  preparations  cannot  be 
as  healthful,  even  if  the  antiseptic  has  no  direct  in- 
fluence upon  the  digestive  organs,  and  they  should 
be  used  sparingly. 


IX. 

OTHER   MATERIALS   USED  IN    COOKING. 

OINCE  light  sweet  bread  is  one  of  the  most  im- 
v~'^  portant  articles  of  diet,  and  since  in  the  United 
States  such  bread  is  largely  made  in  homes,  and  not  in 
bakeries,  as  is  the  case  in  Europe,  the  substances  which 
produce  this  digestible  food  deserve  consideration. 

YEAST. 

Yeast  is  a  cryptogamous  plant,  a  simple  cell  which 
grows,  by  multiplication  or  budding,  in  a  slightly  sweet- 
ened liquid,  converting  the  sugar  into  carbonic  acid 
gas  and  alcohol,  at  the  same  time  that  it  acts  upon 
starch,  converting  it  into  dextrine,  and  then  into  starch 
sugar.  The  process  is  technically  called  alcoholic  fer- 
mentation, and  yeast  a  ferment.  Different  kinds  of 
fermentation  are  distinguished  by  the  name  of  the 
principal  product  to  which  they  give  rise ;  as,  alco- 
holic or  yeast  fermentation,  acetic  or  vinegar  fermen- 
tation, lactic,  butyric,  etc. 


i52  FOOD  MATERIALS 

It  is  because  of  the  evolution  of  carbonic  acid  gas, 
which  is  held  in  the  sponge  in  little  bubbles  by  the 
tenacity  of  the  gluten  of  the  wheat,  that  yeast  is  used 
in  the  preparation  of  bread.  Wild  yeast  germs  are 
floating  in  the  air,  and  the  leaven  of  olden  times  owed 
its  efficiency  to  the  cells  which  fell  into  the  open 
vessel.  The  objection  to  this  spontaneous  fermenta- 
tion is,  that  not  only  the  cells  of  alcoholic  fermen- 
tation fall  in,  but  those  that  produce  the  other  kinds, 
notably  the  lactic,  so  that  bread-making  by  leaven  is  a 
somewhat  haphazard  process  :  the  result  may  be  fairly 
good,  and  it  may  be  very  bad.  The  black  sour  bread 
of  Germany  and  other  European  countries  is  made  in 
this  manner.  The  addition  of  hops  retards  decay  of 
the  yeast.  Modern  yeast  is  brewers'  or  beer  yeast, 
even  home-made  preparations  being  mostly  started  by 
it ;  because  both  for  beer  and  bread  the  alcoholic  fer- 
mentation is  desirable,  and  brewers,  by  careful  study 
and  experiment,  have  learned  so  to  control  the  process 
as  to  obtain  a  yeast  consisting  of  only  one  kind  of 
organisms,  Saccharomyces  cerevisice. 

When  yeast  is  added  to  batter,  it  is  like  the  scatter- 
ing of  a  multitude  of  little  living  cells  or  seeds,  ready 
to  grow  with  extraordinary  rapidity  in  a  medium  suited 


AND    THEIR  ADULTERATIONS.  153 

to  their  nutrition.  These  cells,  in  well  mixed  batter, 
are  present  at  every  point,  and  as  each  cell,  in  decom- 
posing sugar,  gives  off  tiny  bubbles  of  carbonic  acid 
gas,  these  bubbles  are  in  every  part  of  the  dough,  ren- 
dering it  porous  or  "  light."  Although  wheat  flour 
contains  only  about  one  per  cent  of  sugar,  when  fer- 
mentation is  once  started,  the  starch  is  rapidly  con- 
verted into  sugar,  and  the  sugar  so  formed  into  carbonic 
acid  gas  and  alcohol :  thus  the  fermentation  of  bread 
goes  on  at  the  expense  of  the  starch  of  the  flour. 
Cooked  starch  is  acted  on  more  readily  than  raw,  and 
therefore  the  addition  of  some  boiled  potatoes  to  the 
sponge  causes  a  more  rapid  rising. 

There  are  two  divisions  of  beer  yeast,  high  [haute) 
and  low  {basse).  According  to  Pasteur  the  high  buds 
more  rapidly,  floats,  and  is  produced  by  fermentation 
at  from  fifty  to  seventy-five  degrees  Fahrenheit.  The 
low  sinks,  the  cells  are  more  separate,  it  buds  for  a  short 
time  only,  and  is  produced  at  a  lower  temperature,  forty 
to  fifty  degrees,  and  is  of  late  much  used  for  beer.  The 
best  yeast  for  bread  is  that  which  floats.  It  is  now 
prepared  for  the  purpose,  and  when  ready  for  use  is 
skimmed  off,  drained,  pressed  in  sacks,  cut  up  into 
squares,  covered  with  tin-foil,  and  sold  as  compressed 


I54  FOOD  MATERIALS 

yeast.  In  this  condition  it  is  next  best  to  the  fresh 
brewers'  yeast,  with  the  advantage  of  small  bulk  and 
ease  of  transportation.  If  kept  cool  and  dry,  it  will  be 
good  for  days ;  and  if  dried,  not  in  the  sun  or  in  the 
oven,  but  in  a  current  of  warm  air,  it  will  keep  indefi- 
nitely. Packages  of  dry  yeast  are  composed  for  the 
most  part  of  yeast  mixed  with  corn  or  rye  meal  and 
then  dried.  Yeast  germs  are  killed  by  a  temperature 
of  boiling  water,  and  freezing  arrests  their  growth.  The 
best  temperature  for  fermentation  of  beer  yeast  is  from 
sixty  to  seventy  degrees  Fahrenheit. 

Since  the  sole  object  of  bread  fermentation  is 
the  production  of  a  porous  loaf,  Miss  Corson's  rec- 
ommendation of  the  quick  process  of  raising  bread 
in  two  hours,  by  the  use  of  two  squares  of  yeast, 
seems  to  have  a  reasonable  basis,  and  if  the  bread 
is,  as  it  should  be,  well  baked,  so  that  the  inside 
of  the  loaf  has  reached  a  temperature  of  boiling 
water,  there  will  remain  no  yeasty  flavor.  Many 
loaves  do  not  become  heated  to  this  point  even 
when  burned  on  the  outside,  consequently  the  yeast 
germs  are  not  killed :  such  slack-baked  bread  is  not 
wholesome. 

Yeast  is  not  often  adulterated,  but  its  quality  may 


AND    THEIR  ADULTERATIONS.  155 

vary  owing  to  carelessness  in  preparation,  especially  if 
it  is  home-made.  There  is  no  doubt  that  the  com- 
pressed or  Vienna  yeast  is  the  best  article  now  at 
hand  for  producing  the  so-called  raised  bread.  The 
color  of  good  yeast  is  yellow  or  grayish  yellow ;  the 
browner  its  tint,  the  more  dead  germs  there  are.  It 
should  be  only  a  mass  of  cells  with  no  fibre  or  tissue. 
Occasionally  a  blue  line  is  seen  :  this  is  due  to  the  pres- 
ence of  Mucors,  or  moulds.  Such  yeast  makes  bread 
which  will  become  mouldy  in  a  very  short  time. 

The  following  notes  of  the  microscopic  appearances 
of  yeast  may  be  useful.  Take  some  yeast  on  the  point 
of  a  pin,  and  add  carefully  a  drop  of  water  on  the 
slide.  Cover  and  examine  with  reflected  light  under  a 
power  of  six  hundred  diameters.  The  cells  are  seen 
not  to  be  round,  but  rather  oval,  a  little  pointed  at 
each  end :  the  larger  they  are,  the  better  the  yeast. 
The  walls  are  transparent  and  delicate,  to  allow  of  ready 
osmosis.  The  contents  of  new  cells  are  clear,  limpid, 
and  colorless,  somewhat  granulated  with  one  or  more 
vacuoles.  Old  cells  have  darker  contents,  are  more 
coarsely  granulated,  and  destitute  of  vacuoles,  they  are 
of  irregular  form  and  look  withered.  Strange  ferments 
are  almost  always  encountered  as  impurities.     Saccha- 


156  FOOD  MATERIALS 

romyces  exiguus,  or  minor,  is  often  abundant,  if  the 
fermentation  which  produced  the  yeast  was  carried 
on  at  a  low  temperature.  It  is  about  half  the  size 
of  S.  cerevisice,  or  only  three  ten-thousandths  of  an 
inch  in  diameter,  and  is  always  present  in  leaven. 
Pcnicilliiun  glaucum,  Mucor  viucedo,  or  Mould,  etc., 
may  be  readily  recognized.  There  may  be  present 
niicrococri,  or  round  cells,  and  bacilli,  or  rod-like  cells, 
giving  rise  to  various  other  fermentations,  all  of  which 
soon  pass  over  into  the  putrid  fermentation  :  the  time 
elapsing  varies  according  to  the  temperature,  etc. 

"  On  Fermentation,"  by  Schutzenberger,  and  "  Etudes 
sur  la  Biere,"  by  Pasteur,  are  books  to  be  consulted. 
Dr.  Graham's  "  Chemistry  of  Bread-Making  "  is  a  valu- 
able addition  to  the  literature  of  the  subject. 

SODA,   BAKIXG-FOWDERS,   ETC. 

The  problem  of  making  porous  bread  without  the 
long  process  of  fermentation,  and  the  consequent  loss 
in  material  which  is  converted  into  carbonic  acid  and 
alcohol,  has  often  occupied  the  thought  of  chemists  of 
reputation.     The  results  have  been  :  — 

First,  aerated  bread,  made  by  forcing  into  the  dough, 


AND    THEIR  ADULTERATIONS.  157 

just  before  baking,  carbonic  acid  gas  prepared  by  chemi- 
cal means  in  another  vessel. 

Secondly,  the  so-called  soda  bread  of  this  country, 
in  which  the  carbonic  acid  gas  is  liberated  from  bicar- 
bonate of  soda  by  the  use  of  an  acid ;  as  muriatic, 
tartaric,  lactic  (sour  milk),  and  the  acid  tartrate  of 
potassium  (cream  of  tartar),  acid  phosphate  of  cal- 
cium, or  acid  lactate  of  calcium. 

Thirdly,  baking-powder  bread,  which  is  now  (1885) 
almost  universally  used  in  the  United  States  in  place  of 
soda  bread.  The  great  advantage  to  the  community  is, 
that  while  baking-powders  are  composed  of  the  same 
materials  as  those  mentioned  above,  they  are  care- 
fully mixed,  so  that  neither  acid  nor  alkali  shall  be 
in  excess. 

Soda  (bicarbonate,  supercarbonate,  or  cooking  soda) 
is  chemically  a  sodium  hydrogen  carbonate  prepared 
by  subjecting  recrystallized  sal  soda,  or  washing  soda, 
to  an  atmosphere  of  carbonic  acid  gas.  The  only  im- 
purities likely  to  be  found  are  some  sulphates  and 
chlorides  remaining  from  the  process  of  manufacture 
of  the  sal  soda.  The  substances  used  to  liberate  the 
carbonic  acid  gas  are  practically  reduced  to  two,  cream 
of  tartar,  and  acid  phosphate  of  calcium.     The  first  is 


i58  FOOD  MATERIALS 

prepared  from  imported  argols,  a  substance  used  by 
calico  printers  and  dyers.  It  is  the  crust  which  is 
formed  on  wine  casks  in  the  process  of  fermentation. 
In  its  refined  and  purified  condition  it  is  sold  for 
bread-making.  One  baking-powder  manufactory,  at 
least,  is  said  to  use  only  that  which  has  been  chemi- 
cally prepared.  The  price  being  from  forty  to  eighty 
cents  per  pound,  and  in  times  of  disturbance  of  foreign 
commerce  even  twice  that,  cream  of  tartar  is  the  most 
liable  to  be  adulterated  of  all  the  articles  used  in 
cooking. 

Terra  alba,  sulphate  of  calcium,  or,  as  it  is  commonly 
called,  gypsum,  is  the  substance  most  frequently  used 
to  make  up  ten  to  ninety  per  cent  of  the  weight  of 
cream  of  tartar.  It  is  reported  that  fine  bone-ash 
has  been  found  in  some  samples  from  the  Western 
States.  In  Eastern  Massachusetts  the  most  frequent 
adulterant  is  the  much  cheaper  acid  phosphate  of  cal- 
cium ;  and  since  this  is  itself  used  as  a  substitute  for 
cream  of  tartar,  the  effect  on  the  bread  is  not  as 
much  to  be  feared  as  if  gypsum  were  used.  If  it 
shall  be  proved  that  a  certain  amount  of  potassium 
salts  are  desirable  to  counteract  the  excessive  use  of 
salt  and  salted  foods,  the  much   discussed   cream  of 


AND    THEIR  ADULTERATIONS.  159 

tartar  bread  may  find  its  place  as  a  recognized  article 
of  diet. 

Acid  phosphate  of  calcium  is  prepared  from  bones 
by  treating  them  with  sulphuric  acid,  setting  free  a 
portion  of  the  phosphoric  acid.  It  is  supposed  to  be 
a  useful  ingredient  of  bread,  since  it  restores  some  of 
the  phosphate  said  to  be  lost  in  the  bran. 

Acid  lactate  of  calcium  has  lately  been  used  for  a 
cream  of  tartar  substitute,  and  in  many  respects  it 
promises  well.  It  contains  the  same  acid  as  sour  milk, 
and  is  prepared  from  starch  by  the  action  of  the  lactic 
ferment. 

Baking  Powders,  prepared  from  soda  and  cream  of 
tartar  chiefly,  are,  when  put  up  in  tin  cans,  with  the 
maker's  name  on  the  label,  much  more  reliable  than 
any  other  form  of  bread-raising  preparation.  About 
eighty  per  cent  are  found  to  be  good ;  of  cream  of 
tartar  only  sixty  per  cent  are  genuine.  Sometimes  a 
very  little  bicarbonate  of  ammonia  is  added,  to  secure 
a  complete  neutralization  of  the  acid  without  leaving 
an  excess  of  soda.  If  this  amount  does  not  exceed 
one  per  cent,  it  can  do  no  harm.  As  they  are  made  in 
large  quantities,  they  are  of  a  more  even  composition 
than  when  cooks  guess  at  the  proportions  by  spoon- 


160  FOOD  MATERIALS 

fuls.  The  chief  adulterant  used  is  starch  or  rice  flour, 
sometimes  to  the  extent  of  fifty  per  cent.  There  is 
not  so  much  adulteration  as  has  often  been  supposed, 
if  the  articles  are  purchased  of  the  large  firms  and  of 
reliable  dealers.  Alum  is  not  infrequently  found  in 
powders  sold  in  bulk.  The  following  simple  tests  may 
be  of  use  to  those  who  have  had  a  little  practice  in 
chemistry. 

Good  cream  of  tartar  is  soluble  in  eighteen  parts  of 
boiling  water.  Good  baking  powder  is  also  soluble ; 
a  small  quantity  of  starch  present  will  give  a  certain 
opacity  to  the  solution,  but  if  in  excess  a  paste  may 
be  formed  stiff  enough  for  laundry  use.  If  there  is  in 
either  case  much  residue  insoluble  in  water  which  dis- 
solves in  hydrochloric  acid,  phosphate  or  sulphate  of 
calcium  is  to  be  suspected. 

A  few  drops  of  barium  chloride  added  to  the  hydro- 
chloric acid  solution  will  cause  a  white  precipitate,  if 
sulphates  are  present  in  the  substance  under  examina- 
tion. If  the  phosphates  are  to  be  tested  for,  the  acid 
to  be  used  for  a  solution  is  nitric,  and  to  the  solution  a 
few  cubic  centimeters  of  molybdate  of  ammonia  are 
added.  A  fine  yellow  color  or  precipitate  indicates 
phosphates.     Ammonia  is  sometimes  found  in  baking 


AND    THEIR  ADULTERATIONS.  x§x 

powders.  If  present,  a  small  lump  of  potassium  hydrate 
added  to  the  strong  aqueous  solution  will,  on  heating, 
cause  the  ammonia  to  be  given  off  in  the  steam,  which 
will  then  turn  red  litmus-paper  blue. 

To  test  for  alum,  prepare  a  fresh  decoction  of  log- 
wood ;  add  a  few  drops  to  the  solution  or  substance, 
and  render  it  acid  by  acetic  acid.  A  yellow  color 
proves  the  absence  of  alum  ;  a  purplish  red  or  a  bluish 
color,  more  or  less  decided,  means  more  or  less  alum. 
If  the  substance  were  not  acidified,  the  test  might  be 
vitiated  by  the  presence  of  an  alkali,  as  in  the  case  of  a 
baking  powder.  Caution :  use  a  new  solution,  or  a 
new  portion  of  an  old  one,  for  each  test. 

To  judge  of  the  quantity  of  any  of  the  substances, 
it  is  necessary  to  have  a  standard  article  with  which 
to  compare  the  suspected  one.  If  the  same  quan- 
tity of  each  is  taken,  and  it  is  subjected  to  the  same 
tests,  a  very  correct  judgment  of  its  quality  may  be 
formed.  Acids  should  be  used  in  glass  or  china 
vessels  only. 


X. 

PRINCIPLES   OF   DIET. 

THE  food  of  savage  and  semi-civilized  man  has 
always  been  of  the  material  most  readily  ob- 
tained ;  either  the  flesh  of  animals  killed  in  the  chase, 
or  wild  fruits  native  to  his  country,  or  the  products  of 
crude  agriculture.1  The  nations  of  Northern  Europe, 
down  to  nearly  the  middle  of  the  present  century,  ate 
rye  and  barley  bread,  as  wheat  could  not  be  profitably 
grown  in  that  region ;  and  the  Esquimaux  to-day  live 
upon  the  product  of  the  seal  fishery  from  necessity,  and 
not  from  choice. 

Now,  the  food  products  of  the  whole  world  are 
accessible  to  the  people  of  the  United  States,  through 
the  use  of  improved  methods  of  transportation,  —  the 
refrigerator  car  and  steamship  compartment,  —  and 
through  improved  methods  of  preservation,  by  cold 
storage,  and  by  the  canning  process. 

1  For  the  diet  of  ancient  peoples,  see  "  Food  and  Dietetics," 
Pavy,  p.  475. 


FOOD  MATERIALS.  163 

This  very  abundance  brings  its  own  danger ;  for  the 
appetite  is  no  longer  a  sufficient  guide  to  the  selection 
of  food,  as  it  was  in  the  case  of  the  early  peoples  who 
were  not  tempted  by  so  great  a  variety. 

Many  diseases  of  modern  civilization  are  doubtless 
due  to  errors  of  diet,  which  might  easily  be  avoided. 
Many  dietaries  have  been  published,  but  nearly  all 
are  only  of  limited  local  application,  so  that,  when 
applied  elsewhere,  they  have  failed,  and  brought  dis- 
credit upon  the  whole  plan.  Only  certain  broad  prin- 
ciples can  be  laid  down,  and  much  intelligent  study 
must  be  brought  to  bear  upon  the  question  in  each 
community. 

The  first  general  principle  is  suggested  by  Dr.  Pavy, 
when  he  calls  attention  to  the  fact  that  the  meat-eaters 
among  animals,  having  to  hunt  for  their  food,  pass  long 
intervals  without  any,  and  when  it  is  obtained  gorge 
themselves  with  it,  and  then  lie  torpid  for  days.  The 
herbivorous  animals,  having  their  food  always  near 
them,  eat  all  the  time,  and  are  stupid  all  the  time. 

Man  ought  not  to  imitate  either  class.  It  is  his 
privilege  to  choose  such  times  of  eating  and  such 
materials  for  food  as  will  best  develop  his  mental 
power.     Many  writers  seem  to  forget  this,  and  to  plan 


r64  FOOD  MATERIALS 

man's  food  as  if  he  were  a  mere  animal,  whereas  he  is 
or  may  be  very  much  more.  His  food  should  be  such 
as  to  keep  the  animal  mechanism  in  good  order  for 
the  mind  to  use.  It  should  not  be  overfed,  so  as 
to  be  sluggish,  nor  should  it  be  starved,  so  as  to  be 
incapable  of  executing  the  mind's  demands. 

The  second  general  principle  is  an  economical  one, 
and  is  very  suggestively  stated  in  an  address  given  at 
Ann  Arbor,  in  August,  1885,  by  Edward  Atkinson, 
chairman  of  Section  I.  of  the  American  Association  for 
the  Advancement  of  Science.  In  this  address  are 
embodied  many  of  the  results  of  Professor  Atwater's 
investigations  on  the  values  of  foods.  Others  will 
be  found  in  his  reports.  The  following  tables,  and 
most  of  the  statements  concerning  them,  are  taken 
from  the  address,  although  they  have  been  somewhat 
condensed. 

In  spite  of  the  seeming  abundance  of  the  country, 
the  average  value  of  our  produce,  if  distributed  per 
capita,  would  be  only  from  40  to  45  cents  per  day, 
out  of  which  shelter,  food,  and  clothing  must  be  pro- 
vided. Statistics  show  that  the  mere  price  of  food 
constitutes  sixty  per  cent  of  the  cost  of  living  of  the 
working  people  of  the  United  States,  and  it  may  well 


AND    THEIR  ADULTERATIONS.  165 

be  said  that  "  half  the  struggle  of  life  is  a  struggle  for 
food  for  the  large  majority  of  people."  In  view  of 
these  facts,  the  following  questions  were  put  as  the  text 
of  the  address  :  — 

"  1.  What  is  the  present  daily  ration  of  the  working 
men  and  women,  who  constitute  the  vast  majority  of 
the  people  of  this  and  of  other  lands  ? 

"  2.  What  might  be  the  daily  ration  if  the  science 
of  nutrition  could  be  made  a  part  of  the  common 
knowledge  ? 

"  3.  How  much  could  its  cost  be  reduced,  and  its 
nutritious  properties  increased  ?  " 

In  answer  to  the  first  question,  the  following  dietaries 
are  given. 

No.  1. 

Cents. 

Meat,  Poultry,  and  Fish  per  day,  £  to  1  lb 9.70 

Milk,  i  pint,  Butter  1^  to  i£  oz.,  Cheese  a  scrap  ....  5.00 

Eggs,  one  every  two  days  at  12  cents  a  dozen 50 

Cereals 2  150 

Vegetables 1  98 

Sugar  or  Syrup 1  94 

Tea  or  Coffee 1.20 

Fruit,  green  or  dry 62 

Salt,  Spice,  Ice,  etc 49 

Total 23.93 


iSe  FOOD  MATERIALS 

No.  2.       No.  3.       No.  4. 

Cents.  Cents.  Cents. 

Meat  and  Fish  per  day     .     .     .     .  9.52  9.70  6.51 

Milk,  Butter,  and  Cheese      .     .     .  6.50  6.73  2.86 

Eggs 1.40  i-43  -65 

Total  Animal  Food     .     .      17.42  17.86  10.02 

Cereals 4.07  3.83  1.73 

Sugar  and  Syrup 1.90  ii88  1.30 

Vegetables 1.32  3.21  1  46 

Fruit,  green  and  dry     ......  1.17  3.28  .35 

Tea  and  Coffee 70  1.25  .90 

Sundries 2.14  2.53  .40 

Total  cents  per  day    .    .      28.73  33-9°  16.16 

No.  i.  Estimated  average  dietary  of  the  working 
people  in  the  United  States,  from  data  derived  chiefly 
from  the  records  of  food  consumed  by  factory  opera- 
tives in  the  Eastern  and  Middle  States,  a  large  propor- 
tion of  them  women,  during  the  years  18 80- 1884. 
Two  children  under  ten  years  of  age  are  computed  as 
one  adult. 

No.  2.  Fourteen  adult  men  and  women  in  Massa- 
chusetts. Nine  men  engaged  in  mechanical  work, 
three  women  in  mill  work,  two  in  care  of  the  house. 
For  six  months  in  1885.     (Mostly  Irish.) 

No.  3.  A  well-to-do  American  family ;  father  and 
two  sons,  mechanics  ;  three  adults  ;  five  children  under 
ten  years  old;  Massachusetts.     Six  months  in  1885. 


AND    THEIR  ADULTERATIONS.  ^7 

No.  4.  Fifty-six  adult  females  ;  factory  operatives, 
and  the  employees  in  charge  of  the  boarding-house. 
Six  months  in  1885.     Maryland. 

No.  5.  A  carder  in  a  Russian  woollen  mill,  support- 
ing a  wife  and  two  children ;  equivalent  to  three 
adults  in  the  family.     Per  week. 

Breakfast:  Coffee,  Bread,  and  Butter $0.47^ 

Lunch  :  Bread  and  Butter,  and  sometimes  Meat     .     .         .47K 
Dinner  :  Soup,  Potatoes  or  other  Vegetables,  occasion- 
ally Meat 1.66 

Lunch  at  4  p.  m.  :  Coffee,  Bread  and  Butter 47^ 

Supper  at  8  p.m.:  Milk,  Soup,  and  Bread 47K 

Personal  luxuries  including  Beer 26 

Food  for  each  adult,  18.18  cents  per  day.  $3-82 

No.  6.     A  workman  in  a  German  shoe  factory,  with 

wife  and  three  children,  equivalent  to  three  and  a  half 

adults. 

Breakfast  :   Coffee,  Bread  and   Butter,   sometimes   Meat  for 

himself. 
Dinner  :  Soup,  with  Vegetables  and  Pork. 
Lunch  at  4  P.  M. :  Coffee,  Bread,  and  sometimes  Butter. 
Supper  at  8  p.  M.  :   Salad,  Potatoes,  Bacon,  Sauce,  and  some 

Meat. 
Food  and  fuel  cost  44  cents  a  day,  or  12.57  cents  for  each  adult. 

It  is  thus  shown  how  meagre  is  the  diet  of  working 
people,  and  now  it  remains  to  show  some  means  of 
improving  it  by  the  application  of  scientific  knowledge 


^8  FOOD  MATERIALS 

to  the  composition  of  food  materials.  In  answer  to 
the  second  and  third  questions,  the  following  tables 
have  been  compiled.  It  must  be  remembered,  how- 
ever, that  the  chemist  is  not  always  a  cook,  or  even  a 
physiologist,  and  that,  while  a  certain  combination  may 
look  to  be  very  nutritious  on  paper,  it  may  not  prove 
satisfactory  in  practice ;  for  the  important  factor  of 
palatability  is  left  out,  and,  however  nutritious  a  food 
may  be,  if  it  is  repulsive  to  the  individual,  the  secre- 
tion of  the  digestive  fluids  will  not  follow  its  ingestion. 
The  art  of  cookery  must  here  come  to  the  rescue  ;  also 
the  relative  digestibility  of  food  must  be  considered. 
Nevertheless,  such  calculations  as  the  following  are 
very  useful,  and  worthy  of  careful  study,  as  indicating 
a  possible  economy  of  the  precious  food  materials. 

The  standard  daily  ration  of  an  adult  has  been  com- 
puted many  times  ;  according  to  the  best  authorities, 
it  must  contain  the  following  proportions  and  quantities 
in  order  that  health  may  be  maintained  :  nitrogenous 
matter  or  proteine,  0.26  lb. ;  fats,  0.12  lb. ;  starch,  su- 
gar, &c,  or  the  carbohydrates,  1.10  lb.  Since  all  food 
materials  contain  water  (from  10  to  90  per  cent),  and 
many  contain  woody  fibre  or  other  indigestible  sub- 
stance, a  careful  calculation   of  the   really   nutritious 


AND   THEIR  ADULTERATIONS.  t6q 

material  must  be  made  before  deciding  upon  the 
amounts  required.  The  following  selections  are  given 
from  many  tables  computed  with  great  pains  by  Pro- 
fessor Atwater  and  his  assistant,  Mr.  Rockwood,  from 
analyses  made  for  the  Smithsonian  Institution,  and  on 
the  basis  of  the  daily  ration  given  above. 

Rations  of  Common  Food  Materials  estimated  to  contain  the 
Amounts  of  Nutritive  Ingredients  in  the  standard  Daily 
Ration,  with  the  Cost  of  each. 

Cents. 

Beef,  Neck,  £  lb 4.00 

Beans,  £  lb 75 

Potatoes,  2  lb 2.00 

Oatmeal,  \  lb 1.25 

Rye  Flour,  £  lb 1.25 

Butter,  £  oz 1.50 

10.75 

Beef,  Shin,  ^  lb 3.00 

Potatoes,  3  lb ....     3.00 

Wheat  Flour,  £  lb 2.00 

Beans,  \\b 75 

Butter,  1  oz 2.00 

Sugar,  1^  oz 1.00 

"•75 

Fresh  Mackerel,  f  lb 4  5° 

Potatoes,  1  lb 100 

Cracked  Wheat,  £  lb 3.00 

Corn  Meal,  £  lb 1-5° 

Beans,  £  lb 75 

Butter,  1  oz 2.00 

12.75 


170 


FOOD  MATERIALS 


Liver,  \  lb. 
Potatoes,  1  lb. 
Butter,  1  oz.    . 
Corn  Meal,  1  lb. 
Bread,  \  lb.     . 


Cents. 
5.00 
I. OO 
2.00 
3.00 
3-°o 
14.00 

Beef,  Shin,  \  lb 1.50 

Fresh  Cod,  \  lb 4.00 

Oatmeal,  \  lb 50 

Bread,  -J  lb 3.00 

Potatoes,  1  lb 1.00 

Milk,  \  pt 1.50 

Corn  Meal,  \  lb 1.50 

Butter,  1  oz 2.00 

Boston  Crackers,  2  oz 1.25 

16.25 

Round  Steak,  \  lb 8.00 

Milk  \  lb 2.00 

Bread,  \  lb 2.50 

Potatoes,  1^  lb 1.50 

Turnips,  £  lb 50 

Corn  Meal,  \  lb 1.00 

Butter,  1  oz 2.00 

Cheese,  1  oz 1.00 

Sugar,  \\  oz :  1.00 

19.50 


Soda  Crackers, 
Potatoes,  1  lb 
Bread  i  lb. 
Shad  \  lb. 
Eggs,  I  lb. 
Oatmeal,  \  lb 
Rice,  \  lb. 


lb. 


2.50 
1. 00 
3.00 
4.00 
4.00 
.625 
1.50 


AND    THEIR  ADULTERATIONS. 


171 


Cents. 

Sugar,  -^  lb 1.25 

Butter,  1  oz 2.00 

Beans,  \  lb 1.50 


Oyster  Crackers,  \  lb. 
Oysters,  \  lb.  .  . 
Mutton,  Leg,  \  lb.  . 
Pease,  \  lb.  .  .  . 
Potatoes,  1  lb.  .  . 
Oatmeal,  \  lb.     .     . 

Rice,}  lb 

Bread,  \  lb.     .     .     . 
Butter,  1^  oz.      .     . 


21-375 

300 
10.00 
4.00 
1.25 
1. 00 
1. 00 
2.50 
3.00 
l.oo 


Turkey,  \  lb. 
Fresh  Pork,  2  oz. 
Hominy,  \  lb. 
Potatoes,  1  ^lb.     . 
Beans,  \  lb.     .     . 
Rye  Bread,  \  lb. 
Milk,  1  lb.      .     . 


Salmon,  \  lb.       .     . 
Beef,  Sirloin,  \  lb.  . 
Oysters,  \  lb.       .     . 
Dried  Beef,  1  oz. 
Wheat  Bread,  \  lb. 
Oatmeal,  2  oz.      .     . 
Rice,  2  oz.       ... 
Potatoes,  \  lb.     .     . 
Sweet  Potatoes,  1  lb. 
Cabbage,  2  oz.    .     . 


28.75 

18.00 
1.625 
2.00 
1.00 
1.50 
3.00 
3-5° 

30.625 

10.00 
5.00 

10.00 

1. 00 

3.00 

.625 

1.50 

•50 
6.00 

•25 


I72  FOOD  MATERIALS 

Turnips,  2  oz 125 

Butter,  2  oz 2.00 

Milk,  1  lb 3.50 

Sugar,  2  oz 1.50 

45.OO 

The  following  table  is  given  simply  as  an  indication 
of  the  kind  of  calculation  which  every  cooking  class 
should  undertake,  and  which  every  philanthropist  in- 
terested in  the  better  living  of  the  people  should  study. 
The  subject  is  yet  in  its  infancy,  and  there  is  much  work 
to  be  done  in  this  line  before  the  working  people  can 
be  well  fed  at  a  low  cost. 

Amount  of  Nutrients  furnished  for  Twenty-five  Cents  in  Food 
Materials  at  ordinary  Prices. 

At  Prices    Twenty-five    Containing 
Food  Materials.  in  Cents       Cents  will       Nutrients 

per  lb. 

Oysters  at  50  cts.  per  qt 25 

Oysters  at  35  cts.  per  qt 17.5 

Bluefish 10 

Beef  Sirloin 25 

Shad 12 

Cod 8 

Mutton,  Leg 22 

Mackerel 10 

Beef,  Round 18 

Canned  Salmon 20 

Mutton,  Side 20 

Beef,  Round 15 


y  for  lbs.        in  lbs. 

I. OO 

.12 

I.42 

•17 

2.50 

.27 

I. OO 

.29 

2.08 

.29 

3J3 

•34 

1. 14 

34 

2.50 

35 

i-39 

40 

'•-S 

44 

125 

46 

1.67 

49 

AND    THEIR  ADULTERATIONS. 


173 


Salt  Mackerel 12.5  2.00  .60 

Butter 30  0.83  .73 

Milk  at  8  cts.  per  qt 4  6.25  .74 

Salt  Cod 5  5.00  .82 

Milk  at  7  cts.  per  qt 3.5  7.14  .84 

Cheese,  whole  milk 15  1.67  1.08 

Smoked  Herring 6  4.17  1.21 

Pork,  salted,  fat 12  2.08  1.65 

Wheat  Bread 6  4.17  2.75 

Potatoes  at  $1  per  bushel  ....     1.7  1324  3.04 

Beans  at  10  cts.  per  qt 5  5.00  3.96 

Potatoes  at  75  cts.  per  bushel      .     .     1.25  18.00  4.13 

Wheat  Bread 4  6.25  4.15 

Oatmeal        5  5.00  4.48 

Wheat  Flour 4  6.25  5.44 

Potatoes,  50  cts.  per  bushel     .     .     .    0.85  26.47  6.06 

Indian  Meal 3  8.33  6.90 

"  It  is  well  worth  noting  that  oatmeal  is  one  of  the 
cheapest  foods  that  we  have  :  that  is,  it  furnishes  more 
nutritive  material  in  proportion  to  the  cost  than  almost 
any  other.  Corn  meal  is  indeed  cheaper,  but  the  oat- 
meal has  this  great  advantage  over  corn  meal  and  wheat 
flour,  that  it  has  more  proteine.  If  one  wishes  to  econ- 
omize in  his  food,  oatmeal  rightly  cooked  affords  an 
excellent  material  therefor." 

Another  attempt  to  illustrate  the  relative  cost  of  food 
materials  is  given  by  Dr.  Graham,  from  calculations 
based   on  Dr.    Frankland's  experiments.      And  while 


1 74  FOOD  MATERIALS 

all  such  statements  are  only  partially  true,  owing  to 
the  partial  knowledge  of  the  function  of  food  in  the 
body,  yet  they  may,  rightly  understood,  serve  a  useful 
purpose. 

"  The  most  trustworthy  of  the  late  investigations  on 
the  function  of  the  various  constituents  of  food,  when 
used  up  in  the  body,  go  to  show  that  the  muscle  is  to 
the  human  machine  what  the  piston-rod  is  to  the  en- 
gine, the  means  of  converting  the  heat  of  the  fuel  into 
motion,  which  means  work  ;  only  in  the  human  machine 
the  agent  is  itself  used  up  in  the  process,  and  requires 
renewal.  For  this  renewal,  muscle-making  food  is 
needed,  but  for  most  of  the  work  the  starch  and  fat 
foods  are  used."  The  amount  may  be  expressed  in 
the  usual  manner  of  designating  mechanical  work ;  that 
is,  the  weight  and  cost  of  food  required  to  raise  a  weight 
to  a  certain  height.  The  weight  chosen  is  that  of  an 
average  person,  140  pounds;  the  height,  that  of  a 
mountain  of  10,000  feet,  not  high  enough  to  disturb 
the  natural  functions  of  respiration  in  the  person  as- 
cending it. 


AND    THEIR  ADULTERATIONS.  175 

Food  Materials  necessary  for  the    Work  done  in   raising  140 
Pounds  10,000  Feet. 

Weight  in  lbs.  Cost  per  lb.  Total  Cost 

required.  in  Cents.  in  Cents. 

Potatoes 5-00  2  IO 

Flour i-33  6  8 

Bread 2.33  4  9h 

Oatmeal 125  5}  7i 

Rice i-33  8  " 

Lean  of  Beef 3-5°  24  84 

Beef  Fat 5°  20  I0 

Cheshire  Cheese      ....     1.20  20  24 


LIST  OF  WORKS   CONSULTED. 


BOOKS  FOR  GENERAL  READING. 

Food.    A.  H.  Church.    London,  Chapman  and  Hall,  1882. 
Foods.     Edward  Smith.     8th  edition.     London,  Kegan  Paul, 

Trench  &  Co.,  1883. 
Food   and    Dietetics.      F.   W.   Pavy.    2d   edition.     London, 

Churchill,  1875. 
Food    and    Feeding.     Sir    Henry    Thompson.     3d    edition. 

London,  Warne  &  Co. 
The  Chemistry  of  Cookery.     Mathieu  Williams.     New  York, 

Appleton  &  Co.,  1885. 
The  Chemistry  of  Cooking  and  Cleaning.     Ellen  H.  Richards. 

Boston,  Estes  and  Lauriat,  1882. 
Water  Supply :  Chemical  and  Sanitary.     Wm.  Ripley  Nichols. 

New  York,  John  Wiley  and  Sons,  1883. 
International  Health  Exhibition  Handbooks.  —  On  Food  and 

Food  Adjuncts.     Diet  in  Relation  to  Health  and  Work. 

A.   Wynter  Blyth.  —  Water,   Water   Supplies,   and   Un- 

fermented    Beverages.      John     Attfield.  —  Principles    of 

Cooking.      Septimus     Berdmore.  —  Food    and    Cooking 

for  Infants.   Catherine  Jane  Wood.  —  English  and  Exotic 
12 


1 78 


FOOD  MATERIALS 


Fruits.  W.  T.  Thisleton  Dyer.  —  Salt  and  other  Condi- 
ments. J.  J.  Manley.  —  London,  Wra.  Clowes  and  Sons, 
1884.     One  shilling  each. 

Familiar  Lessons  on  Food  and  Nutrition.  T.  Twining. 
London,  David  Bogue,  1882. 

The  Chemistry  of  Bread  Making.  Charles  Graham.  Cantor 
Lectures,  London  Society  of  Arts,  18S0. 

Coffee  and  Tea.    G.  V.  Poore.      London,  Lewis,  1883. 

What  the  Grocers  sell  us.  P.  H.  Felker.  New  York,  Orange 
Judd  &  Co.,  1880. 

Massachusetts  State  Board  of  Health  Reports,  Papers  in. 
Boston,  1870  to  1884,  especially  1879  and  1880-S3. 

New  York  State  Board  of  Health  Reports,  Papers  in.    1882-83. 

Yarious  Papers  by  W.  O.  Atwater.     Middletown,  Conn. 

The  Application  of  Science  to  the  Production  and  Consumption 
of  Food.  Edward  Atkinson.  Salem,  Mass.,  Press  of  the 
A.  A.  A.  S. 


BOOKS    FOR   THE   CHEMIST. 

Foods.     Their  Composition  and  Analysis.    A.  Wynter  Blyth. 

London,  Griffin  &  Co.,  1882. 
Food.     Its  Adulterations  and  the  Methods  for  their  Detection. 

Arthur  Hill  Hassall.     London,  Longmans,  Green,  &  Co., 

1S76. 
The  Analysis  and  Adulteration  of   Foods.     Parts  I.  and  II. 

James  Bell.     London,  Chapman  and  Hall,  1881. 


AND    THEIR  ADULTERATIONS. 


179 


Die  menschlichen  Nahrungs-  und  Genussmittel.  Dr.  J.  Kbnig. 
2d  edition.     Berlin,  Julius  Springer,  1883.     2  vols. 

Die  wichtigsten  Nahrungsmittel  und  Getranke.  Oscar  Dietzsch. 
4th  edition.     Zurich,  1884. 

Praxis  des  Nahrungsmittel  Chemikers.  F.  Eisner.  Leipzig, 
1SS0. 

Studien  iiber  den  chemischen  Nachweis  fremder  Fette  in  But- 
terfette.  Dr.  August  Hannsen.  Erlangen,  1884.  Pam- 
phlet. 

Butter,  its  Analysis  and  Adulteration.  Hehner  and  Angell. 
London,  Churchill,  1877. 

Water  Analysis.     Dr.  E.  Frankland.     London,  1880. 

Water  Analysis.  J.  Alfred  Wanklyn.  6th  edition.  London, 
Triibner  &  Co. 

Milk  Analysis.     J.  Alfred  Wanklyn.     London,  Triibner  &  Co. 

Tea,  Coffee,  and  Coca.  J.  Alfred  Wanklyn.  London,  Triib- 
ner &  Co.,  1883. 

Commercial  Organic  Analysis.  A.  II.  Allen.  2d  edition. 
Philadelphia,  Lindsay  and  Blakiston,  1S85.     3  vols. 

Sanitary  Examination  of  Water,  Air,  and  Food.  Fox. 
London,  Churchill,  1878. 

Composition  of  Foods,  &c.  [Tables  of.]  E.  T.  Kensington. 
London,  Churchill,  1S77. 


INDEX. 


PAGE 

Acid  Lactate 159 

Phosphate J57ii59 

Acids  in  Fruits 147 

in  Vinegar 141 

Adulteration   .     .    .     .  18, 20,  22,  73 

of  baking  powder     ....  160 

of  butter 95 

of  cayenne  pepper  ....  130 

of  cheese 96 

of  cocoa 68 

of  coffee 64 

of  cream  of  tartar   ....  160 

of  flour 84 

ofhoney 117 

of  milk 89 

of  mustard 127 

of  pepper 129 

of  spices 131 

of  sugar 113 

of  tea 154 

of  vinegar 141 

Aerated  Bread 156 

Alchemist,  the  modern     ...  20 

Allspice 134 

\    Antiseptics 150 

\Arrowroot 87 

Bacteria 29 

Baking  Powder 157, 159 

Barley 72 

Beans 146 


PAGE 

Beet-root  Sugar 103 

Block-tin  Pipes 45 

Books  of  Reference      ....     177 

Bread 151 

Buckwheat 86 

Butter 89, 91 

Caffeine 62 

Canned  Fruits  and  Meats     .    .     1 18 
rules  for  soundness  of      .    .     124 

Cassia 133 

Cayenne  Pepper 130 

Cereal  Foods 70 

Cheese 95 

Chocolate 67 

Cider 141 

Cinnamon 132 

Cloves 134 

Cocoa 67 

Coffee    . 59 

Cooks,  educated 11,168 

Corn  Meal 16,  173 

JCorn  Starch 87 

Cost  of  Daily  Ration   .    165,  174,  175 

Cream 91 

Cream  of  Tartar.    .     20,  21,  23,  157 

Currants 147 

Curry 135 

Daily  Ration 165 

Decay  of  Food 149 


182 


INDEX. 


PAGE 

Diet,  articles  of i6,  162 

Dietaries 165 

Disease  and  drinking  water  .    25,  27, 

3'i  35 

Dried  Fruits 148 

Economy,  domestic       14,  15,  17,  168 

Ergot 76 

Extracts,  Flavoring     ....     139 

Farina 87 

Fehling's  Solution 115 

Fermentation.     .    .     .     90,  140,  151 

putrefactive    ....       149,  156 

Filtration  of  water  .    .     .    .     35,  37 

^NFish 145 

^Hour 71,  78,  80 

Fruits 147 

Germs 30,  149,  152 

Germ  Theory 29 

Ginger 135 

Glucose      .     .     .     .97,  104,  106,  112 

'Gluten 85 

Grape  Sugar 103 

Gypsum 23,  15S 

Hardness  of  water   ....     26,40 

Honey 107,  113,  117 

Housekeeping,  as  a  profession  .      10 
scientific 16 

Iron  Pipes 46 

•s\   Jellies 149, 

Lead  in  canned  foods    ....  122 

Pipes 4' 

Leaven 152 

Lentils 14° 

Macaroni S^ 

Mace 133 

Maize 75 

\      Maple  Sugar 103 

^^  Meat 144 


PAGE 

Milk 22,  88 

Condensed 90 

disease  carried  by    ...     .      31 

Millet 75 

Molassess 99,  104 

Mustard 125 

Nutmegs 131 

Oatmeal 74,  173 

Oats 74 

Oil,  salad 138 

Oleomargarine     . 94 

Peas 146 

Pepper 128 

Pickles 142 

Pimento 134 

Poisons 32 

Pollution  of  Wells 35 

Price  of  Food      ....      164,  172 

Raisins       149 

Relishes 148 

Rice 73 

Rye 76 

Salt 143 

Samovar 57 

Shells,  Cocoa 68 

Soda 157 

Soft  Water 26 

Softening  of  hard  Water  .     .     .      39 

Spices 130 

Starch 86,  153 

Starch  Sugar 106 

Sugar 97 

Sucrose 97i  io4 

Syrup 100,  116 

Tables  of  Rations 169 

Tables  of  Cost  of  Food     ...     172 

Tannin 51,  62,  67 

Tea 49 


INDEX. 


183 


PAGE 

Terra  Alba 158 

Theine 51 

Tin  Cans 118 

in  food       119 


Utility,  law  of 


M 


Vegetables 147 

Vermicelli 87 


PAGE 

Vinegar 139 

Water 24 

suitable  for  domestic  use  .  32 

Wells 35 

Wheat 76 

Wheat  Flour,  grinding  of     .    .  78 

Yeast 15! 

microscopic  examination  of  .  155 


University  Press :   John  Wilson  &  Son,  Cambridge. 


I 

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MY  ?  0   t9tt 


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